The Ways They Met: Percabeth
by Orange Pens and Messy Hands
Summary: Different AUs and one-shots of the ways Percabeth could've met. Chapter 10 Percy's a relaxed kinda guy
1. Jerky Nights and Mild Crushes

**Hey guys, it's me again. I might have missed an upload day, and I'm not gonna lie. It was all my fault. In my defense, I had a lot of school work to do. My past few weeks have been pretty busy. So anyway, I've decided to start a new series, and it is like 100% based off of _leighismyname_ 's Normals, Meet Abnormals so you guys should go check it out, like right now. Don't even bother reading my stuff go read that fic instead lol. Anyway this is just going to be a bunch of one shots on the different ways Percy and Annabeth could meet, all AUs. Anyway, here's the first one. **

**PLEASE REVIEW it means a lot.**

 **Words w/out AN: 7407**

 **Pairing(s): Percabeth, Slight Jasper**

 **I am not Rick, so I own nothing.**

Jerky Nights and Mild Crushes

* * *

Annabeth was extremely unlucky. Like, two shattered mirrors, a black cat and and a swift strike from lightning, unlucky. Okay, so maybe she wasn't actually struck by lightning, but with the amount of electricity that's running through her veins, making her heart pound against her ribcage, she might as well have been. Her entire body buzzed. It could've been anxiety, it could've been the aforementioned electricity, but it was probably the dozens of speakers spread throughout Madison Square Garden. The music and intense bass jolting her body, straight to the core. Don't get her wrong though, she was still very, very unlucky.

Okay, slight exaggeration.

But not by _that_ much.

Beside her, was her best friend of 14 years, Thalia. She was pumping her fist to the music, forcing the people around her to avoid her knuckle of impending doom. Her spiky, black hair was bouncing all over the place. Her eyes were closed as she enjoyed the music but underneath her eyelids were her striking, sky blue eyes. She was dressed in all black, but she definitely _wasn't_ goth. Thalia is very adamant about that. Her black leather jacket hung loosely around her Death to Barbie T-shirt. Her black, ripped jeans looked as if they had extra holes in them today. Yep, she definitely _wasn't_ goth.

Annabeth didn't really go to venues like this. People surrounding her, her body thumping erratically. It seemed like a very social event, and Annabeth was anything but social. She would much rather spend her birthday sitting at home, reading a book, not at some concert. But she allowed her friends, Thalia and Piper, to dress her up and drag her out. It was mainly Piper who chose her clothes and did her make-up. Thalia just complained the entire time while munching on chips. Piper had gone off with her boyfriend, Jason, to get some snacks and a few drinks, leaving Annabeth here to regret her life choices while Thalia mindlessly 'rocked out' to whatever singer was performing.

However, there were a few perks to Annabeth's unlucky birthday night out with her friends. First off, there were the seats. Well, Annabeth wasn't even sure if that's what they were anymore, since practically everyone in a 500 yard radius was standing, or jumping, or dancing around. Thalia had somehow managed to score Annabeth and her friends front row seats. Like, 'I could reach my hand out and touch the performer's leg,' front row. Every time Annabeth asked Thalia how she got them, on the other hand, Thalia would just reply with 'I have my ways young child.' She had some ideas though, mainly revolving around Thalia's dad getting her the tickets. Since Thalia's dad and her uncles were all 'big shots' in the music business. Thalia probably just asked them for tickets.

Secondly, Annabeth didn't actually mind the current performer, Percy Jackson. He had naturally messy, raven black hair, as if his hair had a mind of it's own, not that it was a problem. Annabeth wouldn't mind running her hands through his silky hair. He had enticing sea green eyes. You could stare right into them and see his mood and emotions. Then again she's only seen photos and videos of them. Nothing up close, until now, that is. You could say Annabeth had a _mild_ crush on Percy Jackson. She also loved his music, but she loved his music coming from her earbuds, not enormous speakers, she loved his music at a volume she could control, not the ear-blazing amounts it was in now. But she loved his music nonetheless. The way that it could speak to you, how she related to all of the songs. How the music always brought a smile to her face. Yeah, she only had a _mild_ crush.

Annabeth was daydreaming at this point, and she was deep, like Marianas Trench deep. She was just staring at Percy with a dreamy expression on her face and a small smile. She didn't even realize that she was staring until she was looking straight at his captivating, sea green eyes. He was looking back at her too. Except he had a smirk on his face, which quickly turned into a knowing smile, almost as if he knew something that she didn't.

That should've been her _first_ warning, instead Annabeth just frowned at him. Sure, she just received one of the Percy Jackson's infamous smirks, but she didn't like not knowing something. She prided herself on her knowledge. She's worked for years to gain a reputation in the architecture community. Albeit, she currently worked at the local convenience store to pay college bills, but nonetheless she did have a name in the architecture community. She then had to work extra hard to get other people in her life to recognize her abilities. Just because she was blonde, she was treated as 'dumb'.

Anyway, back to how Annabeth was unlucky.

"I can't believe this Kelp Head is my cousin." Thalia said, eyes glued to Percy Jackson.

That should've been her _second_ warning, but no, Annabeth scanned the surrounding audience, searching for the 'Kelp Head' that was related to Thalia. Annabeth thought that the only family Thalia had here was Jason, after all, he was her brother. Annabeth was about to ask Thalia what she meant when she figured it out. The tickets, Percy's continuous glances in their direction. Gods Annabeth was an idiot sometimes, Percy Jackson was Thalia's cousin.

"Percy Jackson is your cousin?" Annabeth exclaimed, barely audible over the surrounding music and screaming.

"Hmm? Oh yeah, he is."

"And when were you going to tell me?"

"I think I did tell you actually, about 17 seconds ago." Thalia said, slightly amused, "Besides it never came up."

"It never came up? What about when you got the tickets, you could've said, 'Oh yeah I have these front row tickets for my cousin's show. You wanna come?' Or anything like that."

"Jeez, don't get too upset over front row tickets to one of the most popular singers in the world. Besides, I feel like my next surprise should make-up for that."

And that should've been Annabeth's _third_ and final warning. But she barely even noticed what Thalia said. Instead she was going into super-ultra-freakout mode.

"Oh gods, oh gods, OH GODS!" Annabeth screamed, "All of those times I was mushing over Percy Jackson to you, saying 'Oh he's so attractive' or 'His eyes are so dreamy.' You mean I was talking about your cousin?"

"Yeah, you were. It was pretty weird, not gonna lie."

"Oh gods, oh gods, oh go-"

"ANNABETH!" Thalia screamed, "You need to relax. You're hyperventilating or something like that. Let's go get a drink."

Annabeth's ears were ringing from Thalia's screaming. Her chest was still pounding from the bass. She wasn't really mad or anything, she was just shocked and nervous. She took another glance at Thalia, she had a glint in her eye and a knowing smile plastered on her face. Annabeth was starting to really hate these smiles. The two left their seats and waded through the mass of people. Thalia took her hand and guided her, pushing and shoving people when necessary. The music started to calm down and then stopped completely. Annabeth turned back to see Percy Jackson walking off stage, clutching a water bottle. Annabeth didn't think much of this, except for the water, she really wished she had one right now.

Thalia was dragging Annabeth away from the concession stand now, they didn't even get a water. Instead she was being dragged off towards the side of the main stage. Annabeth was confused, she didn't like not knowing things and the look in Thalia's eyes definitely wasn't a 'let's get water' look.

Annabeth was getting closer and closer to the steps leading up to the backstage, "What are we doing here Thalia, are we still getting a drink?"

"Uh, yeah sure. The water over here is better." Thalia said unconvincingly.

Now Annabeth wasn't an idiot. She could figure out when someone was lying to her, and Thalia was definitely lying to her. But at this point Annabeth didn't even care. She probably could've been dragged to a back alley, beat and then robbed and as long as she got a water afterwards she'd be fine.

Okay, slight exaggeration.

But not by _that_ much.

As they ventured deeper and deeper into unforbidden territory, Annabeth got a gut feeling. She shouldn't be here right now. If she continued on her life would be pulled out from under her, and everything would change.

Okay, slight exaggeration.

But not by _that_ much.

They approached two bulky-looking security guards that were guarding an out of the way tunnel off to the side. The passageway wasn't that noticeable, so there wasn't much for the guards to do. As she got nearer, she realized just how big the security guards were. They towered over her. Muscles bulged out of their matching black T-shirts. Annabeth suddenly wished for an abandoned alleyway to be in. Once the men noticed the two girls their eyes narrowed, they took a step closer.

"THALIA!" Annabeth whisper-screamed into Thalia's ear, "We really shouldn't be here."

Annabeth was practically begging now, she just wanted to get back to their seats to enjoy the show, and hopefully get a water on the way. She really _didn't_ want to be beat up by two men in a random hallway, never to be seen again.

"Don't worry, do you not trust me or something?"

"It's the two men in front of us that I don't trust."

"Quit stressing, we're chill." Thalia said, her tone calm, cool and collected.

"Quit stressing, we're chill." Annabeth mocked.

Once the guards focused on the two girls, their harsh expression softened. But it was more like from titanium to rock.

"Hey Thals," The one guard said, his voice gruff. The other just nodded their head.

"Hey guys, it's nice to see you again." Thalia raised a fist and fist-bumped them. "This is my friend, Annabeth."

"Hi…" Annabeth gave a small and nervous wave.

"We're just here to see my cousin."

"Go on through, it's the third door on the left." The other guard said.

Thalia just strolled between the two, Annabeth just hid behind Thalia down the hallway until they were out of site. They entered the third door on the left, inside was unexpected. Actually, Annabeth didn't know what she expected. Narnia? Wonderland? A broom closet?

Instead there was a man.

A gorgeous man with sea green eyes and raven black hair.

Inside of a fairly large dressing room. He turned as he saw the door open.

"Ahh, Thalia! It's so good to see you again." He ran over and hugged Thalia.

"Yeah, yeah. Now get off me Kelp Head. You have a guest."

Percy straightened himself off of Thalia. He extended a hand towards Annabeth, "Hey, I'm Percy Jackson. Thalia's told me _a lot_ about you."

Annabeth was slightly in shock. To be this close to Percy Jackson? Sure, like, 20 minutes ago she was close enough to reach out and touch his leg, but now he is reaching out and is trying to touch her.

There's a lot of touching going around.

She was also very nervous. What had Thalia told Percy? Did she say anything about her _mild_ crush? She shakily raised an arm and met his hand with hers. "Hi, I'm Annabeth Chase."

She felt literal sparks.

Okay, slight exaggeration.

But not by _that_ much.

She felt sparks alright. Her hand jolted and she stared down at it, slightly confused. She glanced at Percy, he was also staring at their clasped hands, as if he felt the sparks too. He glanced up and met her eyes. Striking, sea green on fierce, grey. A sort of understanding passed through them.

And then Annabeth was back to extreme-nervousness mode. She realized she was staring at the Percy Jackson's sea green eyes. She also saw how his mood was reflected in them. She probably would've stared longer but Thalia shook her from her enticement.

"Wow, you've known each other seven seconds and you're already holding hands and lovingly staring into each other's eyes." Thalia said mockingly.

Percy quickly released their hands and whipped his head over at Thalia, "Oh, ha ha, Pinecone face."

Once their hands weren't touching Annabeth stretched her fingers and the jolt of electricity that once flowed through her hands subsided into a fading numbness. Annabeth couldn't do much more than blush at Thalia snide remark, she was still confused about Percy and his hand.

"Anyway," Percy said, anxious to change the subject. "I heard it's your birthday, right?"

"Uh, yeah it is. Thalia, is this the surprise you were talking about?" Annabeth waved her arms in the general direction that Percy was in.

Thalia gave an affirmative nod, "Yup." She said, popping the 'p'.

"Well," Percy said, turning his attention back into Annabeth, "If there's anything you want as a gift, don't hesitate to ask."

Annabeth warily eyed Percy. She gave him a quick nod and took the time to examine him more closely. He wore a sea green, v-neck t-shirt that complimented his eyes perfectly. He had on some dark, skinny jeans and a ratty pair of converses. His one hand was laying by his side and the other was holding the most amazing thing Annabeth has seen all day.

A water bottle.

Her eyes widened with excitement. She didn't realize how thirsty she had been until now. She desperately pointed a finger at the water bottle, "I think I know what I want."

Percy followed her gaze until he was looking at his hand. "You want my water bottle?" He asked skeptically.

"Seriously Annabeth? You want his water?" Thalia said incredulously.

"I told you, I'm thirsty." Annabeth said, her face determined.

Percy just shrugged and handed her the bottle. He eyed Annabeth as she uncapped it and downed the rest of the bottle in one swig. She tossed the bottle into an empty recycling bin.

Annabeth cleared her throat. "So, uh, how much has Thalia told you about me?"

Percy just laughed, "Don't worry, nothing bad. She just constantly talks about her genius best friend who has, and I quote, 'Honey blonde hair and striking grey eyes.'"

Now it was Thalia's turn to be embarrassed. A blush crept up her face and she turned away.

Annabeth started laughing and Percy continued on, "Yeah, she talks about you all the time and at first it was nice to hear about you, but it quickly became weird."

Now it was Annabeth's turn to blush. Did Percy just compliment her? Did he just say he liked hearing about her? Annabeth just laughed again to cover her blush, "Well, Thalia has always had a slight obsession with me."

"Hey! I just thought it would be great to tell you about my friend, Annabeth!" Thalia argued. "And don't get me started on talking about Annabeth. Every time I mentioned her, you looked like you were in love."

Now it was Percy's turn to blush. A lot of blushing going around, huh?

Percy cleared his throat, "Anyway, I have to go back out and perform. It was nice meeting you, Annabeth."

He smiled at her, a genuine smile, and scurried out of the dressing room. Annabeth was shocked at the sudden change of events. But she strangely felt good. Must've been the water she had, hydration is key, after all.

"Well that was interesting." Thalia said to break the silence.

"Yup." Annabeth replied, popping the 'p'.

"Let's go find Piper and Jason, they're probably wondering where we are."

They walked out of the room. Annabeth heard echoes of Percy Jackson starting up another song for the crowds to enjoy.

"So what did you think of Percy?" Thalia asked.

"He was pretty cool, we didn't talk long enough for me to get to know him, but he seems nice."

"So, what you're saying is that you want some alone time to get to know him?"

"That is _nowhere_ close to what I said. And what's with you? Are you playing matchmaker between me and Percy Jackson?"

"Matchmaker? Of course not. I'm just letting you guys meet, and seeing what happens. If love grows? So be it."

"Yeah and what if it doesn't? What if it withers and dies? Besides, the Percy Jackson wouldn't fall for a 'no one' like me. Do you remember his last girlfriend? The super famous artist/model, Rachel Dare."

"I'll have you know, they were friends since high school, and he had a crush on her since then. And what's the point of not trying when it comes to love? Oh, I'm sorry, when it comes to _mild_ crushes." Thalia retorted, "Also stop using last names, to me it's just Percy and Rachel."

They arrived back at their seats. They saw Jason and Piper, enjoying the music.

"Oh, hey guys. Where have you been?" Jason asked.

"Just getting Annie here, a water." Thalia replied.

Annabeth tried not to be irritated that Thalia called her Annie. "Yup, a water, that's it." Annabeth really didn't want to tell Jason and Piper about whatever it was Thalia was actually doing.

"We were just at the concession stands, but we didn't see you." Piper said.

"Must've missed us." Annabeth said dismissively.

"Uh, yeah. Must've." Jason said.

"So, how are you guys liking the concert?" Thalia asked, trying to change the subject.

"I'm actually really enjoying it! The way Percy sings his lyrics is melodic." Piper said, clearly enjoying the music.

"Yeah, he's really good." Jason said, "And to think I've been hanging out with him since I was three."

"That's great! Glad to know you guys enjoy it." Thalia said. "The concert is almost over, he has a couple more songs after this and that's it."

* * *

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O

* * *

When Annabeth got home, she was tired. And sleepy, giddy, exhausted, excited, happy and overwhelmed. She just met Percy Jackson. She just learned he might have a crush on her. She might dream about that moment for the next few days, or weeks.

Of course, she was realistic. What were the chances that someone famous, like him, would go out with a 'no one,' like her. Their meeting was a one time thing, arranged because Thalia was his cousin. Annabeth really should forget her _mild_ crush. But of course, she couldn't. Since, her dreams were filled with sparkling, sea green eyes.

* * *

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O

* * *

She awoke to an annoyingly loud alarm. Sure, it was her alarm, and sure, she was the one who made it loud. But it was annoying nonetheless. Annabeth groaned and opened her eyes. She considered leaving the alarm clock to blare whatever annoying sound it was blaring. But she figured her apartment neighbours wouldn't appreciate that. So after a few quick smacks in the alarm clock's general direction, the alarm was no more.

Annabeth really despised her friends right now. If she didn't stay out so late last night, she'd have been able to get more sleep. But no, here she was, groggily waking up, just to get to her measly job at the convenience store. She glanced at her alarm clock again. It displayed the same time still. Nothing's changed, except for Annabeth's attitude. Oh, how a couple minutes can change someone's mood completely. From an ignorant dream to a rude awakening, figuratively and literally. How she yearned for the sea green eyes dream, instead of the nightmare that was waking up in even these hours of the morning. Morning, mourning, there wasn't really a difference that Annabeth could see now. Something's died, most likely her will to live.

It should've been illegal to have to wake up at this hour. No it wasn't 6:30 a.m, or even 5:30 a.m. It was 3:30 a.m, and Annabeth had the graveyard shift.

Lots of questions mulled around Annabeth's mind as she slowly got ready for work. Why was there ever such a thing as a 24/7 convenience store? Why did she decide to work there? Was missing out on precious sleep worth the money? Was it too late to quit? But instead of searching for answers, she searched for her keys. The store was only two blocks away from Annabeth's apartment, but Annabeth was smarter than that. She knew what kind of people lurked in dark alleys in New York. So the best option to avoid them was to drive. But little did she know the weirdest person she'd meet was in the store, not the alley.

* * *

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O

* * *

The drive? Uneventful. The walk in? Uneventful. The waiting behind the counter at 4:00 a.m? Uneventful. It was all uneventful. Annabeth could've closed early, or slept behind the counter, or threw a party. No one would've noticed, no one would've cared, after all, who goes to a convenience store this late? Or was it this early?

And the more Annabeth thought about sleep, the more tempting it was. With her head in her arms, slouched in the counter, it just made her eyelids easier and easier to close. If only someone would turn off the lights, maybe give her a pillow, a nice warm cup of milk, and if someone would stop that ringing sound.

Ringing?

Annabeth straightened up and blinked away the sleep from her eyes. She scanned the room for the source of the noise and her eyes landed on the door. The bell above it was ringing around, probably because the door was recently opened. She looked around the convenience store again, this time looking for someone that's entered. She saw someone in the back corner, a hood pulled over their head and their hands stuffed in their pockets.

Now Annabeth wasn't one to judge. She usually let people's actions speak for themselves. But she did admit she was nervous. After all, who comes into a convenience store at 4:00 a.m? What if they stole from the store? Or she was held up at gunpoint? Or worse? She didn't want to assume the worse case scenario, but her mind decided to process all options. But as the mysterious figure walked towards the counter, beef jerky in hand, she didn't expect this.

"Annabeth?" The hooded figure pulled his hood up and asked.

Annabeth was confused, "Um, yes?"

The figure lifted his hood and revealed his face. Annabeth scanned it to see who this mysterious figure was. The colour sea green flashed in her field of view, then raven black hair and then Percy.

Percy Jackson.

The one and only. He looked as good as ever. His messy hair, all over the place. His eyes sparkling. He placed the jerky down and leaned on the counter.

"What are you doing here?" He said.

"I'm working." Annabeth replied.

Percy rolled his eyes but still held a smile on his face. "I know that. I meant what are you doing here? At this convenience store. At this time."

Annabeth just sighed, "I don't even know. I usually don't work at this time, but the person who did, quit. So their hours were given to the other employees. And guess who got their graveyard shift."

Percy laughed his beautiful laugh. What? Even in her sleep deprived state, Annabeth could still enjoy the finer things in life. "I'm guessing that would be you?"

Annabeth couldn't help but light up by Percy's constant smile and positive look on life, and even though she was tired and generally unhappy, she found a smile creeping up her lips. "Well what about you? What are you doing at this ungodly hour? With beef jerky too!"

"Well I'll have you know beef jerky is amazing at any time of day. And, it might sound stupid but I like the peace and quiet of New York at night."

"So at 4:00 a.m you go on beef jerky runs every night?"

"Oh gods no." Percy said laughing, "Just on Saturdays."

"Oh, much better."

"Well I wouldn't even be at this convenience store, but the one I usually go to ran out of beef jerky!"

"Not the beef jerky!"

"It's always the beef jerky!"

They both doubled over and were teary eyed from laughing. Percy straightened up and reached for his now bagged beef jerky.

"I should get going." Percy said.

Annabeth tried not to feel disappointed. But her smile instantly left her face.

"I'm glad we got to talk again though," Percy said while backing away, "I wanted to wish you another happy birthday."

Percy was almost at the doors now, ready to leave when he turned back to Annabeth. His signature smirk on his face, "I'll see you next week?"

And with that, he left. Annabeth was really confused now. She had so many questions. What did he mean he'll be back next week? What about his other convenience store? Did he not want their beef jerky? Was Annabeth's convenience store the official beef jerky provider for Percy Jackson? But one thing was utterly clear. He was coming back next week.

* * *

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O

* * *

Although she had the rest of her week to worry about, Annabeth found herself looking forward to waking up at 3:30 a.m this upcoming Friday night, or was it Saturday morning? She still did excellent on her tests in college, she still hung out with Thalia, she still worked, although it was at a much more preferable hour. Yet she was silently wishing for the weekend to appear faster. She was excited for the change in her schedule. For the unpredictability that followed Percy. And sure, maybe she was just excited to see him.

So on the Friday night leading up to her graveyard shift Annabeth decided to get extra sleep. She went to bed early, that way waking up at the ungodly hour of 3:30 a.m, didn't seem that bad. Spoiler alert. It was indeed that bad. But after a refreshing shower and a few swigs of coffee, Annabeth felt as good as new. She trudged her way over to her car and drove the two blocks to her work.

Annabeth would've loved to say that business was booming. Except it wasn't. The store was empty, the streets were empty, everything was empty. Annabeth's excitement for Percy coming was quickly drowned by her overall depressing job of sitting behind a counter. Again, she almost drifted off to sleep. Except that darn ringing kept her awake.

At 4:00 a.m, right on the dot, Percy Jackson entered the building. Or was it more of a 'rushed' into the building? He slammed through the door, a bag over his shoulder. He raced towards the beef jerky section grabbed two bags and then literally dove behind the counter.

Annabeth looked down at him quizzically but his worried expression immediately made Annabeth concerned. Moments later another person entered the convenience store. She had straight black hair and dark brown eyes. Her clothes were all designer and she seemed out of breath.

She started walking around the small convenience store, searching every aisle and nook and cranny. "Did he come in here? He must've come in here!" The mystery girl yelled at Annabeth while searching.

Annabeth looked down at Percy to see him vigorously shaking his head 'no.'

"I'm sorry but you're the first person who's come in here all night." Annabeth yelled back.

The girl walked up to the counter, "Oh, alright. I'm pretty sure I saw the Percy Jackson! I am his biggest fan! If you see him let me know. My name is Drew, by the way."

"Hi Drew, I'm Annabeth."

Drew looked her over judgmentally and then stormed out of the convenience store, clearly mad she didn't find who she was looking for.

"Alright Percy, you're good."

Percy popped up from behind the counter and released the breath he was holding. "Thank god. She was chasing me for like three blocks."

He placed the beef jerky on the counter and pulled up a chair and sat beside Annabeth. He opened up his bag while munching on beef jerky. Annabeth just stared at him while he did all of this.

"You have to pay for that jerky."

"Yeah, I know." He said, "It must get pretty lonely here." He continued on, dismissing the subject.

"At times, yeah. But I'm starting to like the company."

Percy beamed at her and pulled a laptop out of his bag. "That's good, because I was hoping you wouldn't mind if I stayed for a few hours."

"And what were you planning on doing?"

"Well it is Jerky Night. And on all Jerky Nights, a movie _must_ be watched. So instead of watching it at home, alone, we're watching together, here."

"And if I don't want to watch a movie while I work?"

"Oh come on! It's not like you have any customers to serve. Plus there'll be beef jerky. It's on me."

"I feel like it's on _me_ since you haven't actually paid for those yet."

Percy smirked at her, "Well fine, if you really want to pay for it this time, you can. I'll get next week's."

"Wait a minute, hold on. I did not say I was paying for this."

Percy laughed, "All I heard was 'it's on me.'"

Annabeth sighed, "Unbelievable. The millionaire can't pay for his own jerky."

"Hey! I told you I'll get next week!"

Annabeth snorted and just sat back and started munching on jerky. Percy started playing some comedy movie and took a seat beside her.

* * *

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O

* * *

Once the movie was over, Percy looked at her, "So what'd you think of Jerky Night?"

Her grey eyes met his sea green. He seemed nervous and a bit agitated. "It was amazing." She sincerely said. His eyes immediately relaxed and a genuine smile lit up his face. She smiled back at him and his smile somehow grew ten times bigger. Sometimes it was hard to think of this fun, loving guy as a world famous pop star.

Percy packed up his laptop and the rest of the jerky. He put a twenty on the counter next to a note he wrote. She looked up at him and he just winked.

"See ya next week." He said as he walked out of the door.

She looked down at the note, and read it.

 _The money is for the jerky, I am indeed able to pay for my own ;)  
_ _The number is for you, in case you wanna talk at a time that isn't 4:00 a.m at a convenience store._

Underneath, scrawled across in his hand writing, was Percy Jackson's phone number. _The_ Percy Jackson, gave her, his phone number. There were so many things she could do right now. She could go up to Drew and wave it in her face, flaunting the number. She could sell it online and make some money so she could afford to leave this crumby job. She could text him. Yeah, texting him seems like the best option, after all, Drew seems like she would kill for that number, and Annabeth didn't want to put herself on a hit list. And surprisingly, her job was slowly becoming a lot better.

* * *

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O

* * *

"Hey, Thals." Annabeth said, her voice seemingly fused with happiness.

"Hey, Annie." Thalia smirked.

Annabeth tried not to let her eye twitch, she really didn't like the name Annie. Her name was Annabeth, not Annie. Thalia took her seat next to Annabeth in their English class.

"So, I heard you and my cousin went on a date Friday night." Thalia said.

"Actually, it was Saturday morning. And it wasn't a date. It was Jerky Night."

"Jerky Night?"

"Yup."

"Alright then."

"Besides, it's not like he would want to go on a date with me, right?" Annabeth asked.

"Well," Thalia started, "Let's just say he isn't walking four miles out of the way for just the jerky."

What did Thalia mean by that? Is she just pulling some sort of cruel joke with Annabeth's love life? Or did she actually mean it? Did Percy actually have a crush on her? "Are you saying that Percy has a crush on me?" Annabeth tried not to sound too excited.

Thalia just smirked at her, "I'm not saying that. I'm just saying he enjoys these 'Jerky Nights,' a lot more now."

Whether Annabeth was really bad at reading Thalia's messages, or maybe her brain was being blocked by all these thoughts of Percy, she didn't know. She just wasn't able to think straight. Annabeth just leaned down on her desk and groaned, letting the rest of English class, and the rest of the week, flow by.

* * *

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O

* * *

Little did she know, one fateful Thursday evening, everything would change. She and Percy had talked, a lot. And texted, a lot. And Percy quickly climbed Annabeth's friend ladder. He was closer to her than most of her friends, even rivaling Thalia at some points. He was just so easy to talk to. He made her laugh, he helped her when she was sad. She's helped him when he was sad. He's made her happy.

There were so many things she liked about Percy, from his gorgeous eyes, to his messy hair, but there were things she liked about him that weren't just on the outside. His compassion for others, always trying to help when he can. His loyalty to his friends, how he'll always help and protect a friend. And last but not least, his overall good mood that can always make you smile even on rough days. That was a side of Percy that not everyone was able to experience, and she was very thankful for that.

So maybe Annabeth's _mild_ crush had quickly grown into something more. She didn't know for sure what it is yet, but she definitely knew she wanted to spend more time with him.

She decided to give Percy a call, to ask him if he wanted to go out for dinner, like they sometimes do. After a few rings, he picks up. "Hey Annabeth. What's up?" A muffled noise and a loud crash come from the other end.

"Uh, not much. I was wondering if you wanted to go to dinner or something, but if you're busy it's fine."

"I would but I'm at my Mom's and I'm making cookies with her. Actually, if you want, you can come over and we can have some of them."

"Are you sure? I wouldn't wanna intrude or anything."

"Nonsense, my mom would love to meet you and I've wanted you to meet my mom for a bit now. She's the most amazing person ever."

Annabeth thought for a moment, did she want to meet Percy's mom? Was she reading too much into this? She made up her mind. "I'd love to meet your mom, and cookies sound amazing, text me the address and I'll see you soon."

* * *

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O

* * *

She knocked on the door of the quaint apartment. She heard some yelling from the other side and Percy opened it up. He had flour streaked across his knows and he was licking a spatula. "Hey Annabeth." He grinned. "This is my Mom, Sally." He gestured to a woman mixing cookie dough in bowl. Sally turned around and faced Annabeth.

She had light brown hair and blue eyes. Nothing like Percy's raven black hair or sea green eyes. But they did have the same smile and crinkles around the eyes when they smiled.

Sally's apartment was smaller than expected, since her son was a millionaire. But it seemed better that way. From the pictures sprawled across the shelves to the cozy size of the living room. Their house may be small, but it seemed like an actual home. Sally smiled lovingly at Annabeth and went to give her a hug. Annabeth didn't expect that, but she returned it nonetheless.

"You must be Annabeth. It's so nice to meet you. Percy has told me so much about you." Annabeth raised her eyebrows at Percy in a questioning manner, but he just looked away, a blush creeping up his neck.

"Mom!" He managed to say.

"Oh, I'm just teasing." She winked at Annabeth and the look in her eye made it seem like she wasn't teasing.

"It's so nice to meet you Mrs. Jackson." Annabeth truthfully said, Mrs. Jackson seemed like a wonderful person.

"Oh, please. Call me Sally."

"Alright, Sally."

Sally just smiled again at Annabeth. "You guys can go off, I'm almost done here, I just need to put them in the oven."

Percy grabbed her hand and dragged her off to his room. She's managed to get the electric feeling she gets from being in physical contact with Percy under control since the last time. Percy opened the door to his room and stepped in, pulling Annabeth with him. Her first reaction, blue.

Blue walls, blue sheets, blue clock, blue bed. Everything that can possibly be blue, is blue. "I take it you like blue."

Percy took a seat on his bed and gave her a small smile. He gestured for her to sit beside him. "Well yeah, this was back when I was a kid. I still love blue, but I've managed to branch out and add different colours to the rooms back at my place."

Annabeth sat down beside him, "Your mom seems amazing."

Percy's eyes filled with mirth and he gleefully smiled at nothing in particular. "Yeah, she's the best. Always so caring and patient. I mean she was able to put up with me for so many years." Annabeth laughed at that.

"I'd give anything for a Mom like that." Annabeth said wistfully.

Percy looked at her with concern, "Is your mom not like that?"

"I wouldn't know, she left when I was young. I've never had a mother-figure in my life except for Thalia."

"I know what it's like," Annabeth looked at him, confused, "My dad died at birth. My mom says his ship sunk. He was a Navy Captain, no survivors were found."

Annabeth grabbed his hand, trying to comfort him. The look in Percy's eyes was so wistful, full of sorrow and sadness. She would give anything to make him happy. He looked at her and gave her a small, sad smile. She didn't say the usual 'I'm sorry' simply because it wasn't what she would've wanted to hear. Sometime she knew it was better to move on than to apologize for things you can't do anything about.

"Percy!" Sally yelled from across the apartment, "I'm going out for a bit, the cookies should be ready in 30 minutes."

Percy ran up to her and gave her a kiss on the cheek, "Alright, Mom."

"You two behave." Sally said looking at Percy and her, then she walked out the door and closed it.

Percy turned to her, "You wanna watch a movie?"

Finding Nemo. That's what they were watching. Percy says it's because all the movies here are from when he was a kid, but Annabeth's pretty sure he always carries a copy of it with him at all times. Just as the movie started, the oven timer buzzed. They got up to go get the cookies, when something happened. All of the cookies were blue.

"I know you like the colour blue, but the cookies too?"

"Hey! Everything tastes better blue."

"So when did you start this 'all food must be blue' tradition."

"It was when my stepfather, Gabe, was around. He was a terrible person, practically evil, nicknamed him Smelly Gabe, blah, blah, blah. He said that it was impossible for food to naturally be blue, and for some reason my mom went out of her way to cook only blue food for the rest of the week. After that, it became a tradition."

"Wow." Annabeth said, slightly in shock, "Do they actually taste better blue?"

"Why don't you find out?" Percy took a bite from his cookie as he said that. He immediately dropped the cookie and started screaming.

"Percy what's wrong?" Annabeth rushed to his side and grabbed his arm.

"Those are extremely hot." He said, after managing to catch his breath and down a glass of water.

"No wonder Thalia calls you a Kelp Head. You're addicted to the water and there's not much going on up there." She gestured with her arm in the general direction of his head.

"Hey!" Percy put his hand over his heart in a fake mock, "I am not addicted to the water."

"We are literally watching Finding Nemo, right now." Percy blushed a deep red, "You're such a Seaweed Brain." Annabeth playfully pushed his arm. "Are you okay though?"

Percy smiled at her, "Yeah? Well you're a Wise Girl, since you're such a know-it-all. And yeah, I'm fine."

"Wise Girl? That's the best you can come up with? That's practically a compliment."

"Oh, that's it." Percy lunged at her and threw her over his shoulder, his arm gripping her so she wouldn't fall. His other arm reached for the plate of cookies and he somehow managed to balance both the cookies and Annabeth on his way back to the living room.

"Percy! Put me down, now!" Annabeth screamed and pounded his back with her fists. She was laughing so hard she almost slipped out.

Percy finally put her down on the couch and sat beside her. He put the cookies on the coffee table and sat beside Annabeth.

And that's when she made up her mind.

She was in love with Percy Jackson. No more _mild_ crush, no more 'like.' She was full-blown in love with Percy Jackson. She smiled at the sudden realization.

"What are you smiling about?" Percy asked, his eyes were studying her face.

"Oh, nothing. I'm just really glad you invited me here today."

He smiled and looked forward again, an irritated look flashed across his face. This time it was Annabeth's turn to ask, "Are you okay?"

"Not really."

"What's wrong."

Percy took a deep breath. He grabbed her hand and looked her in the eyes. "Nothing's wrong. In fact, everything is perfect, when I'm with you. You make me so happy and I enjoy spending time with you. I actually look forward to waking up at like 3:00 a.m so I can go to your convenience for Jerky Night. I'm sorry if I'm springing this all on you, but this is how I feel, and I needed you to know. I think I'm in love with you Annabeth. "

Annabeth took a deep breath, everything she wanted and more was happening right now. If anything it was almost _too_ convenient. Percy Jackson was confessing his love for her. Sure it was during the opening scenes of Finding Nemo, but it was still romantic. The way his face scrunched when it was nervous, how his hand was slightly shaking. How he had a mix of anxiety and determination. Annabeth considered typing up an eight page essay on _Her Love for Percy Jackson_ , but instead she surged forward and kissed him. He was shocked at first but after a few seconds, kissed her back with as much enthusiasm. The way their lips moved perfectly with each other, never going too far as to ruin it, but also delving into new areas to explore. Her hands moved up and tangled themselves in his hair. His hand went to her waist and pulled them closer, deepening the kiss. It was definitely one of the best things that's happened to Annabeth.

After they resurfaced for air, they just looked at each other. Percy's eyes filled with mirth and a small smile spreading across his face. Annabeth eyes gleamed with adoration, she already had a full blown grin.

She looked at him and grabbed his hands. "I think I'm in love with you, too."

Thank whatever gods there were for Jerky Night.


	2. Painting, But Not Really

**I'm back with another part of this story. Hopefully you like it, not much to talk about in this an. I'm still updating** _ **The Meetings at the Mall**_ **. I was just taking a bit of a break with it. But the next chapter** _ **will**_ **come out. Hopefully. Thanks people! PLEASE REVIEW. They make me happy inside. Also I just realized there was a line break button, it looks so smooth.**

 **Words w/out AN: 2213**

 **Pairing(s): Percabeth**

 **I am not Rick, so I own nothing.**

Painting, But Not Really

* * *

Percy heard the scream. It was loud and short and _very_ close. After that, there was silence. He quickly ran in the direction of the noise. Searching through the aisles of their local paint store, Percy found the owner of the shriek.

He saw a gorgeous lady, staring at a shelf. Her eyes filled with shock and fear. She was frozen in place at something on the shelf. Percy wanted to help her, he really did. But her honey blonde hair and piercing grey eyes had him in shock. Her hair cascaded in curls down her shoulders and extremely tanned skin contrasted perfectly. Her perfectly toned body suggest she worked out. Of course these were all just quick observations, Percy wasn't staring or anything.

Percy just stood there, in shock and awe. He quickly pulled himself from his stupor and rushed over to help. He closed the gap quickly and tried to get the girls attention. He tried waving his hands in her face, snapping a few times. Percy thought about poking her a few times, but the lady lifted a finger and shakily pointed at the shelf. He followed her frightful gaze until he was looking at a bucket of teal paint.

She's scared of the colour blue? She probably wouldn't appreciate the bucket of deep blue paint that he set down to try and help her.

Percy's raised his eyes to on top of the can. And he saw the spider. It was small, actually. Smaller than he expected. Not like he was expecting a spider to be there, but still. It was microscopic, less than the size of his pinkie finger's nail. The spider was cute, almost. How it wasn't big enough to actually do any damage, all eight of its legs, scuttling across the paint can.

Percy stood in between the girl and the spider. He looked at her and shot her a quizzical look. Since she couldn't see the spider, she relaxed a little. She let out a short breath and dropped her pointing finger. She was still shaking, but she managed to give Percy a menacing glare. If it was any other situation, Percy would've shuddered and then shrunk away. But now, all he did was laugh.

He let the spider crawl onto his hand, which caused a sharp gasp from the girl, and quickly freed it to the world, via an open window.

Percy looked back to the girl, who has now managed to regularly breathe. He didn't say anything, he just smirked at her.

"My knight in shining armour." The girl mockingly said.

Percy laughed at that. Her snide remark, which many could've thought was _extremely_ intimidating, Percy found funny. He extended an arm to her, "Well if you say so." He chuckled again, "I'm Percy, by the way."

She firmly shook his hand, "Annabeth Chase."

"Nice to meet you."

Annabeth cleared her throats and gazed at Percy, more sincerely than her harsh glare from before. "Thanks for, uh, 'saving' me from that spider."

"You should know, I'm not one to judge, but seriously? It was _so_ small. Again not judging, I'm just genuinely curious. What's your deal with spiders?" Percy sheepishly smiled at her and rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

"I'll have you know, arachnophobia is a serious thing." Annabeth huffed.

Percy raised his arms, jokingly, in surrender, "I'm sure it is."

Annabeth stomped her foot this time, "You're impossible."

Percy laughed again, "Well if there's anymore spiders, let me know. So what are you doing here?"

Annabeth looked at him and deadpanned, "I'm getting paint."

"Oh, yeah?" Percy smirked at her instead of getting annoyed, "What are you gonna do with that paint?"

"I'm hoping to paint my room, my best friend is helping me."

"Yeah, I was going to do the same."

Percy would've continued, but Annabeth's phone went off. He only caught a bit of the conversation. Annabeth picked it up, got mad, sighed a lot, then gave up and disappointingly said goodbye.

"Sorry about that, my _friend_ just cancelled on me and I'm gonna have to paint the room on my own."

Percy thought this was some sort of gift from a god or something. He wanted to talk to continue talking to Annabeth and here was his opportunity. "Well, if you want, I can help you paint your room. I was planning on painting my room too, but it's a lot more fun when you're doing it with someone else."

Annabeth looked uneasy, a look of confusion passed over her face, as if she was having an inner battle on what to do. "I don't know, it seems like too much trouble for you. And I barely know you."

Percy just smiled at her, "It's no problem at all, I'd love to help. Maybe we could get to know each other then?"

"Oh, alright. If you really wanna help…"

He tried not to seem too excited, or too forward. He didn't want to creep her out or something. Percy followed Annabeth to the checkout counter as she paid for her things and he paid for his things.

"Just follow my car, and I'll lead you to my apartment." Annabeth turned to him and said, as she was quickly closing the distance to her car. "And I probably should ask, why are you helping me?"

Percy mulled the question for a bit, trying to find the right words to answer with. Annabeth seemed like a very independant person, and calling her helpless, probably wouldn't make her _too_ happy. "I wouldn't call it helping." Annabeth raised her eyebrows questioningly. Percy continued on, "I think you're a really interesting girl, Annabeth. And if I have to paint your room to get to know you better, I will."

Apparently Annabeth liked that answer, because she quickly blushed, but followed it up with a smile. She turned around and entered her car, barely leaving Percy enough time to get into his and follow her.

* * *

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O

* * *

Percy's first thought on her apartment? Boring. Everything was organized. Books were properly on the bookcase, albeit she had _a lot_ more books than he thought someone should ever have. There was a distinct lack of clothes strewn around the place. All of her dishes were safely stacked away in the cupboards. Percy wasn't snooping or anything, he just noticed them all meticulously stacked when she offered him a drink and went to grab a cup for him. Today's newspaper was neatly folded on her coffee table in her living room. The furniture was all matching and evenly spaced out across the room. Very bland.

Percy looked around the room again, this time at the room itself, not the random items in the room. The walls were all a dull grey. No wonder she wanted to repaint. She led him down a hall to what he assumed was her bedroom. The walls were an unsurprising shade of grey and most of the furniture has been moved out of the room. Replaced with a thin layer of plastic that covered every square inch or the place. Whether it was _too_ much plastic, Percy didn't know. He looked at all four walls that needed to be painted, this was going to be a long day.

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O

"Annabeth." Percy whined, "My arm is tired."

Annabeth just huffed, the past few hours had consisted of exactly this. Percy complaining while they worked. Sure, they learned a lot more about each other, and Percy's made her laugh even _more_. But eventually it bubbled down to small arguments over the most stupid of things. Are cats better than dogs? Are Santa's elves just slaves? Obviously they _are_. Annabeth's just too blind to see it.

"Well, if we finish painting this wall, we can go out and get some food, since my fridge is empty right now."

Percy's eyes lit up and he started painting again with a renewed sense of purpose. He looked over at Annabeth, who was smirking.

"I guess food is a great way to motivate you."

"Well, unlike Santa's _slaves_ , I require some sort of incentive."

* * *

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O

* * *

Percy was almost _too_ enthusiastic. After dipping the brush in the now almost empty can, he swung his arm towards the wall to continue painting. Except not all of the paint came with him. A good amount flew off towards the general area Annabeth was, don't worry though, she caught it.

"PERCY!" Annabeth shrieked. Paint now covering her shirt, hair and face. She turned towards him, her nostrils flaring. "You, are, an, idiot."

After each word she took a menacing step forward, gripping her paintbrush dangerously. Percy gulped, all thoughts of food leaving his mind, replaced by an angry, yet extremely _cute_ , Annabeth. He tried to take a couple steps back, but faltered when he found a freshly painted wall behind him.

"Now, Annabeth. Let's try and, uh, think logically here." Percy tried stammering out an apology, but it was too late. She punched him, straight in the face.

Well it was more of a slap.

And it wasn't _really_ with her fist, it was with her paintbrush.

Annabeth looked up at the fresh stripe of blue on Percy's cheek, and busted out laughing. Still laughing she said, "If anything, your new mark is an improvement."

All of the tension in Percy's body was quickly replaced by shock. Annabeth took another step closer and raised a hand toward his face. She quickly spread the paint on his cheek around and took a quick step back.

"Hey! That's not fair. Now I look like someone from _Braveheart_!" Percy complained. "That's it, you're getting it, now." He lunged forward at Annabeth, paintbrush in hand.

She squealed and jumped out of the way. Painting a new line down Percy's back. He turned and grabbed her before she had time to react. He pinned her arms to her side and started painting her arms and face. She tried wriggling out of his grip, but Annabeth was laughing too hard. They both ended up tumbling to the floor, covered in paint, doing nothing but laughing. Annabeth landed in Percy's lap, she didn't seem to notice or care.

"Percy! Enough, enough!" Annabeth squeaked.

Percy loosened his grip, but she made no attempt to move. They both sat there, Percy's arms still around Annabeth. They took a moment to relax, catching their breath. Annabeth shifted slightly and looked at Percy with her striking grey eyes. Percy looked back at her, his sea green orbs meeting hers. She was breathing hard still, with blue paint covering half her face and in spots of her hair. Yet she was still the most beautiful thing Percy had seen.

She glanced down at his lips, a new look in her eyes. His gaze skimmed to her lips, _conveniently_ paint-free. They locked eyes again, giving Percy a moment to decipher the strange look in her eyes. _Hunger._ He glanced at her lips again, and she did the same. She started leaning towards him, their faces inexplicably close. Percy closed the gap and smashed his lips to hers. It was quick and passionate, Percy's mind blanked and when she pulled back he found himself wanting more.

They were both breathing heavy now and when Percy looked in Annabeth's eyes, he saw her blissfully staring at him. Percy grinned and Annabeth laughed against him.

"I should come paint your home more often." Percy smirked, whispering in her ear.

Annabeth punched his arm, but was still smiling. "Maybe…"

She leaned forward again and pressed her lips on Percy's. This time it was much slower. They could've been sitting there for minutes, or hours, Percy didn't know. His mind was mush by that point. It's not like he _really_ cared, though. He smiled against her, and she smiled back.

* * *

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O

* * *

They were a weird sight. Two people, almost fully covered in blue paint. But no one even spared them a glance. That's New York for you.

They both entered the local coffee shop, the strong aroma of freshly ground coffee beans reenergizing them. Percy walked over to grab a booth seat, while Annabeth went to get their coffees. Percy would've paid for his, but Annabeth insisted, saying he _had_ to let her pay since he helped paint her walls.

She came back with a steaming coffee in each hand.

"I wanted to thank you again for helping me paint."

"Is that all you wanted to thank me for?" Percy asked, a smirk on his face.

Annabeth punched his arm again, "You aren't _that_ good of a kisser." A blush creeping up her face.

"I'm not sure about that, maybe I'll have to convince you."

Annabeth leaned forward on the table, "Well I was hoping to paint my kitchen next week, too."

Percy raised his eyebrows, "I don't know if we'll be doing much painting."

Annabeth laughed, the sound like music to his ears. "Let's paint the kitchen, then we can talk."

Percy smiled, suddenly looking forward to another day of 'painting.'


	3. Subway Rides

**I'm back again, with an upload, isn't that fun? Hopefully it is, since I have fun uploading. I've been reading through my older work and OHMYGOD. I might start doing revisions since I think my writing style has changed a lot for the better, and I want ALL my works to be a good representation of how I write. Idk, might change everything, might not. If i changed everything would you like that? My most recent one-shots I like, so I'd probably keep those. Anyway enjoy this update. Also I seriously recommend reading Their Passions in Life, for Life by WildYoungAndFree. It's amazing.**

 **Words w/out AN: 1320**

 **Pairing(s): Percabeth**

 **I am not Rick, so I own nothing.**

Subway Rides

* * *

Percy was bobbing his head to the music coming from his earbuds. Mindlessly tapping a tune on the metal pole beside him, with his drumsticks. He had just gotten back from performing a show with his band at a nearby club, and now he was riding the subway back to his apartment. His drum kit was neatly packed underneath the subway seat, guarded by his legs. He'd be really disappointed if someone tried to steal it from him, since it was a gift from his mom. Not like there was anybody in the practically empty car that could steal it from him.

He quickly surveyed the car and saw a total of three people, including himself. One elderly lady, who was hunched in a corner dozing off, and one blonde girl, who looked to be about his age that was sitting on the opposite side of the car, but three seats down from him. Taking more of an interest in this intriguing blonde, he decided to examine her more closely. Albeit, looking at her appearance, there wasn't much information Percy could get. She was in regular clothes with a generic looking purse, clutched at her side.

His gaze wandered up to her face and that's when they locked eyes. He's always thought he's had a unique eye colour. His mom says it comes from his dad, which makes sense since his mom's eyes are a loving brown. Percy's never seen his dad's eyes before since he died in a boating accident when he was young. So when Percy saw this girl's threatening grey eyes, he was shocked. Sure they were _pretty_ , but it was such a unique colour, that the menacing look she was giving him didn't register with him at all since he was too distracted by her eyes.

When Percy finally realized that he had been obnoxiously tapping his drumsticks against the pole and he had been blatantly staring at her for the past few minutes, he immediately stopped his restless movement and offered the blonde a sheepish smile. He averted his eyes to the ground, but when he looked back up, the girl was still staring at him. This time, instead of having a piercing, steel glare, it was more of a rock hard, quizzical look. She tilted her head to the side a bit and Percy took that as invitation to sit beside her. He stood up, but hesitated, looking back to the drum kit and then around the subway car. It'll probably be fine, that old lady sleeping in the corner doesn't seem like much of a threat.

He crossed the subway car in three, slow steps, and lazily crashed down onto the seat beside her. Her eyes were boring into him now, asking him countless questions, but Percy decided to play it cool and didn't meet her gaze for a moment or two. Finally, he looked up and locked eyes with her. He went to slowly remove his earbuds, but her patience seemed to have ran thin.

She yanked the earbuds out for him, "What the hell." Were the few words this mysterious blonde beauty had chosen to speak to him.

Percy feigned a shocked expression. "Oh, were you talking to me?"

"Well I sure wasn't talking Grandma over there." She jerked a thumb in the old lady's position. "Who do you think you are? I'm just trying to go home and sleep. But no. I had to _endure_ the past 20 minutes of Snoring Sheila over there, and some guy who can't seem to stop staring at me, and won't stop that infernal ruckus he was making with those sticks." She huffed out that last part and crossed her arms in an _incredibly_ cute way.

A flash of guilt passed through Percy. He winced at each word. He _had_ been pretty inconsiderate, but, then again, because of it he was talking to this beautiful girl with the princess curls and the grey eyes. So it wasn't _all_ bad.

Percy smirked at her, "I don't think her name is Sheila. If anything it's Betty. Yeah she definitely looks like a Betty."

Annabeth recoiled a bit at his response, obviously not expecting it.

Percy's smirked even harder now, "And is it really my fault if I can't stop staring at someone as beautiful as you?"

Percy really should've just apologized and went back to his seat, it would've been the sensible thing to do. But what the heck? He was slightly tipsy from the bar, so his confidence was at an all time high, but he wasn't drunk or anything, his body just hummed with a special type of energy.

The girl looked at Percy again, this time taking note of his appearance, she hummed in approval, at least, Percy likes to think she did, and she stuck out a hand. "Annabeth Chase."

Percy grinned at her then looked down at the hand. He high fived it instead and said, "Percy Jackson."

Annabeth laughed to herself and shook her head, "A high five? What are you 12?"

"Surprisingly, no. I'm actually 22.

"Really? I'm 21. You seem older than that."

"Well I can guarantee I'm not _more_ mature than that."

This caused another wave of giggles from Annabeth and Percy grinned at her. Happy that he was able to make her laugh and happy that the conversation was flowing smoothly. But now that Percy was thinking about it, thoughts started overflowing in his head and a rush of nervousness crashed down on him. What if he messed this conversation up? What if she thought he was weird? But then he quickly kicked those thoughts out of his mind. His thoughts were all over the place, he needed to calm down. Maybe he had more to drink at the club than he thought he did?

"You alright?" Annabeth's voice jarred him from his thoughts. "You seem kind of sick."

"Yeah actually, I'm not feeling too good." The buzz from the alcohol seemed to be wearing off and it's only remnants was the start of a migraine and stomach pains. "I was at the club with my band, and we were performing," Percy weakly gestured to his drum kit while clutching his stomach. "And I think that I should never drink alcohol again. It tastes terrible and I'm highly regretting it."

Annabeth laughed and rubbed his back, the contact alleviating some of his pain, although that could have just been his imagination. "Will you be alright to get home? My stop is coming up soon, and I'd hate for you to die or something."

She had a joking expression, but her eyes shined with sympathy.

Percy looked at where they were, his stop was the next one. His time with Annabeth was slowly dwindling down and he was trying to make it last as long as possible. "Yeah I should be fine. My stop is the next one and my apartment isn't too far from here."

"Oh." Annabeth said, slightly shocked. "My stop is the next one, too. And my apartment isn't too far from here either. Although I wanted to get home and finish moving in, I guess it wouldn't hurt to make sure you get to your place safe."

Percy internally grinned. Then he externally grinned after putting together a few pieces and realizing Annabeth didn't want this conversation to end either. "So, moving in you say?" His previous pain, overrun with a sense of joy.

"Yeah, I just moved to a new apartment last week. Why?"

"Oh, no reason." Percy's smirk returned to his face. "It just so happens that I have a new neighbour in my building." Percy quickly got up and retrieved his drum kit.

Annabeth smiled, catching on to what he means. And as they both got up to leave the subway, she just _had_ to put her arm around Percy's waist to "support" him since he still wasn't feeling better.


	4. Anything for Science

**I've had this written for a while now. I had plans to start an entire new series, using this as chapter one. Except I'm terrible at anything other than one shots, (See _The Meetings at the Mall_ ) for proof. So I've adjusted it to make it a one-shot from Percy's POV. I left a lot of things open or somethings that can be expanded on, on purpose for no other reasons than I wanted to. I just felt it would be better to have the relationship between Annabeth and Percy stay ambiguous for this fic. After all, this is a compilation of _ways they met_ , not all of them are gonna end in them getting together or something. Although if I ended up making a part two, for the next day, where they end up touring New York, I'd probably make them get together. Anyway I like this how it is, and I probably won't make another part to it. Although I definitely feel like it would be good. ;) Anyway, nonetheless, I hope you enjoy. Please REVIEW, to let me know what you think. P.S, I've currently been uploading a lot recently, and I have no idea why, but it's usually been a lot of _Stranger Things_ fic, which isn't the normal PJATO stuff I do. But nonetheless I think you should check it _all_ out anyway since, I'm currently in this ****_Stranger Things_ stage right now and I'm not sure when I'm leaving it. Oh well, basically just enjoy this fic, and check out my other one please. Thanks!**

 **Words w/out AN: 5924**

 **Pairing(s): Percabeth**

 **I am not Rick, so I own nothing.**

Anything for Science

* * *

It's 11:00 am. It's Monday morning. It's the first day of school.

And Percy was tired.

You could say he was definitely not a morning person. He spent the previous night, and even the entire summer vacation pre-studying, as he liked to call it. It's where he would read over the work he was supposed to do during the next year, that way when he was taught the subjects the following year, he would be familiar with it. So yeah he was too busy pre-studying to hang out with friends during the summer.

Not that he had too many friends, but that's not the point.

He had some friends he could rely on, he had his family. There was Grover, his best friend since the first grade. There were his cousins, Nico and Thalia. He's known them since diapers. He can remember when he was younger, back to a time when things were good, when things were great. They all would play together at the beach, swimming, playing in the sand, having fun. And last but definitely not least, there was his mom. Sure you could call him weird for having his mom as a friend, it's not like everyone at school already thinks he's weird. But she was the best person in the world. She was someone you could talk to, if you were sad or mad. She never got mad at Percy, even if he did something stupid, which was most of the time. She's endured a lot of things, and she did it all for Percy. All so he could have a better life. So Percy was thankful, thankful for this wonderful person in his life he could call his mom.

She's one of the main reasons Percy is how he is. Sure, he barely has any friends, sure he actually tries in school. And he does well too. But in the end it's all worth it to him, when he comes home, with good grades, and a loving mother who says she's proud of him.

So, he may be tired, on a Monday morning, but he reminds himself again and again, once he completes high school with exceptional grades. Once he gets a career that pays well enough for himself and his mom. Then being tired every morning for the rest of his high school life would be worth it.

So anyway, it was 11:00 am, school started at 9:00 am. He wasn't late or anything, he got to school on time, but the first couple hours of his day were so boring. Sure he got to meet the teachers that would be teaching him, but he's been at the high school for three years already, he was their star student. He had the highest grades in the school, he didn't want to brag or anything, but with the amount of work Percy put in, he wasn't surprised when he found out. So his first and second period classes weren't anything special. Nothing out of the ordinary happened. It's only the first day, but he could see himself falling into a routine.

Wake up. Eat breakfast. Walk to school. Have Luke or one of his cronies harass him in the morning. Simultaneously, die of boredom and take perfect notes in first period. Rinse and repeat for second period, third period and even fifth period. But in between third and fifth was something special.

He had lunch.

Forty minutes to do whatever he pleased. Whether it's sit with his friends and study, or sit alone and study, or maybe even just studying. And unsurprisingly, just as quickly as it came, the idea of free time was instantly engulfed by the responsibilities in his life. Maybe after school, or even on the weekends, he could do something different to deviate from this path that he's set up for himself.

Or maybe he'd just study.

Now, he wasn't expecting period three to be any different from period one or two. He'd been hoping that this period would stick to the plan he'd set up and just be uninteresting, like all of his other classes. But Percy guessed you couldn't really expect her. With her honey, blonde hair that cascaded down her back in princess curls. Or her stormy, grey eyes that seemed to be scanning everything in the room, seemed to be holding a determined, intelligent glint in them. Percy felt he could go on, describing her tanned skin, or athletic figure. But when she looked around the room, and she locked eyes with him, him of all people! Percy felt nervous.

If anything, she should be the one that was nervous, she was obviously new, since Percy had never seen her before. And being in new places, surround by new people, who were all staring at her, mind you, could be a scary and nerve wracking experience.

But no, Percy was scared, nervous, terrified even. Not to mention he was horribly inexperienced when it came to talking to girls. And yeah they were probably going to talk sometime in the next minute or so, since she was gracefully weaving her way through the mass of desks and students, eyes still locked with Percy, as she took one of the available seats beside Percy.

Her sitting beside him was even more of a shock than her even bothering to take the time to look at him. There were so many other open seats. But she decided to take the one right next to him, smack-dab in the front of the classroom. Now Percy has had his fair share of crushes, he'd even managed to get himself a girlfriend a while ago. Albeit, they were over now, but still, just being around someone of the opposite sex, someone as pretty as her, was slightly overwhelming and definitely intimidating. Sure he was around Thalia almost everyday, but she was his cousin. His family. If anything she was more like an older brother to him anyway.

"Are you gonna say something? Or are you gonna continue gaping, like a fish out of water." The girls said with a teasing smirk.

And that was the tipping point.

Actually the tipping point was her gorgeous, blonde hair and the fact that she actually looked at Percy, but her melodic voice made it oh-so much better. Sure she just called him a gaping fish out of water, but that was just a minor detail. Her soothing voice was practically music to his ears. And if this perfect mystery girl wasn't cliché enough, Percy didn't know what cliché was. He half expected someone to jump out and scream 'SIKE' and every trace that she'd ever existed would disappear. But there was no camera man. There wasn't any mystery T.V show host. But there was still this mystery girl beside him.

"I'll take your silence as a no, then." The words flowed from the girl's mouth. "And wipe your mouth, you're drooling a little bit." The girl turned back in her seat and pulled her started pulling her books from her bag.

Percy subconsciously wiped the side of his mouth with the back of his hand. Appalled to not find any drool on his hand, he looked up at the girl, shocked. "I was not drooling!"

She smirked again, and without even looking up she said, "Check the other side of your mouth."

Percy wiped the other side of his mouth. Again, appalled, but this time because he actually found drool there. So it turns out he was actually drooling, not a big a surprise, since whenever Percy wakes up, his pillow is soaked. But slightly mortifying since this pretty girl had managed to catch him in the act of drooling.

Percy wiped his hand on his pant leg and turned towards the girl and muttered. "Whatever. It wasn't even that much drool."

She laughed in response and turned back to him. "I don't know about that." She said. "It seemed like quite a bit."

Percy, as mortified as he was about having a conversation about his drool with this girl, managed to speak out. "Can we please stop talking about my drool?"

The girl laughed and checked her watch, "Well, we have three minutes until class starts. What do you want to talk about? Since you've banned you're drool from being a topic."

Percy huffed in response, trying to control the raging blush he most definitely had crawling up his neck. "Well for starters we could talk about ourselves. Hi, I'm Percy."

He extended an arm, but quickly retracted it after remember it had previously be slothered in drool. She seemed to notice this and laughed again. Percy inwardly smirked, for being able to maintain a conversation with her without stuttering and for being able to make her laugh so many times.

"Hi, I'm Annabeth. Annabeth Chase."

"I'm assuming you're new. I haven't seen you around the school before."

"Yeah," She replied with a nod, "I just moved here with my dad from California."

"Oh that's cool, it gets a lot colder up here in New York, so you should be prepared for that."

"I am. I have, like, an endless supply of sweaters in my closet. I am prepared for the cold."

Their conversation flowed on from there. There was hardly ever a lull or stop. Sure Annabeth and him could only talk for a couple minutes before class until it started, then Percy tuned into 'Work Percy,' but Percy had fun during their conversation nonetheless. Percy was so absorbed in their conversation, that when the start of class bell rang, and he looked away from Annabeth and around at the classroom, he was shocked to see almost the entire class staring at him. And they were all looking back at him, shocked expressions on their faces too. Was it that uncommon, to see Percy actually enjoying himself? Rather than studying or doing his work?

The teacher walked into the class and started to introduce himself, he went over the expectations for the class, and a lot more stuff too. Of course Percy already knew all of this, since his previous teachers had all said something along the same lines. And Percy was almost positive, that this class would've been just as boring as the others, if not, more so, if it wasn't for a certain blonde that knew how to make him laugh.

After class he waited at the exit for Annabeth, she was still packing her things into her bag. She walked over to him and smiled.

"Hey." She said.

"Hi." He smiled back. "I was wondering if you wanted to sit with me and my friends at lunch today?"

Her smile quickly turned into a frown. "Oh," She said, "I'd love to, but I'm going out for lunch with my dad."

Percy's smile never wavered. "That's alright. Tomorrow maybe?"

Annabeth grinned again. "Yeah, sure thing." She started to walk towards one of the exits of the school. She called over her shoulder, "I'll see you next science class, Percy"

"See ya."

Percy called back to her, "Actually, and you can stop me if this is too forward or anything, but if you want I could show you a bit around New York. I know this place like the back of my hand. I've lived here since I was a kid."

Percy wasn't so sure where he got this confidence from. Considering just an hour earlier, he was literally drooling. How he could've collected himself and actually asked her on this outing was nothing short of a miracle to Percy.

Annabeth smiled, she looked at Percy, "Sounds amazing, but I have to unpack tonight. Is tomorrow alright?"

"Sounds great." Percy grinned.

Percy walked down to the cafeteria, where he knew his friends would be, his grin still plastered to his face.

* * *

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O

* * *

"Whoa, he's smiling." Was the first thing Percy heard from his cousins and best friend.

"What are you talking about, Thalia? I smile all of the time." Percy replied.

"Yeah, but lately, you've seemed so depressed. I thought the copious amounts of work were getting to you, man."

At first Percy thought they were joking, but then he considered them seriously. He barely ever smiled anymore, unless it was with his friends or his mom. He never did any of the schoolwork because he liked it. He'd suffered through it because he had to. He had to help his mom out, even if it was only a fraction of how much she helped him. And the one time he's smiled outside of his family was with Annabeth. A distraction from the routine that was a his life, the deviation in his path.

Of course he didn't voice any of this, he'd probably freak his friends out with his levels of negativity about life. So instead he just laughed. "I'm fine. Nothing to worry about."

Nico gave him a skeptical glance, but shrugged afterwards. Percy tried to change the topic from how his depressing life is being caused by trying to get a better life for his mom to about the new girl in the school. "There's someone new in our grade. We were talking during science and she's really nice."

"Yeah I know." said Grover, slightly annoyed. "She's in my science class too."

"You're in our science class? I didn't even notice you."

"Yeah well you were either too busy talking with Annabeth or taking down notes to notice me. I mean, I even sat directly beside you!" Grover said, glaring at Percy.

"Sorry G-Man, I really am. I just didn't want her to feel out of place at the school."

Grover's harsh expression dissolved. He couldn't stay mad at Percy for too long, they were just too close of friends. "It's alright man. You seemed like you were having a lot of fun talking to her. She seemed really into you, too."

Percy decided not to tell them about him showing her around. Sure, they might congratulate him or something, but he'd rather keep it a secret for now.

Percy looked towards Grover, his eyes glimmered with hope, "You think so?"

"I know so. Just try not mess it up. We all know how good you are at that." Grover said, referring to how clumsy he is and how he can mess anything up with just a touch.

Nico and Thalia both laughed while Grover smirked at him.

"Remember that time, he managed to burn toast in the toaster? And it wasn't even plugged in yet?" Nico said while wheezing.

This caused another wave of laughter which was followed by Thalia. "Or what about that time where he managed to break a doorknob, just by closing the door."

"Okay that one wasn't even my fault, it was a very bad doorknob" Percy said, trying to defend himself. But the blush running up his cheek wasn't really helping him out. "Fine, I'm going to the library to study. You guys have fun."

"We will."

Percy turned around to walk towards the library. Behind him he heard, "Try not to break one of the books!"

As he walked, all of the comments his friends said swirled around his mind. Sure, they were just joking. But all of the stuff they said technically did happen. It just made Percy even more nervous for the outing with Annabeth tomorrow. Percy pulled himself from his thoughts when he realized he was standing outside of the library doors.

The library was the perfect place for Percy to clear his mind. He loved the smell of all of the old books. Or the small, corner of the library. Tucked away behind a shelf and the wall. Hidden for only Percy to know about. Percy loved reading, the story and his imagination, working together to take him to a world he could only ever dream of. Where there weren't any problems and he could live his life without regrets. Of course these fantasies ended at the end of each book, but Percy could just go and pick up another.

After all, libraries were known for their large amount of books. The bell for the fifth and final period of the day rang, so Percy gathered his things and returned his book to the shelf. As he made his way over to his final class, English, he stopped at his locker. He unlocked it and exchanged his science binder for his english binder. He was going to close it, when it suddenly slammed shut. Percy flinched at the loud clash of the metal. The first thing he saw was an arm, pushing against the locker door, keeping it held shut. Percy's eyes followed the arm until he was face to face with Luke Castellan.

Luke Castellan was a bit of a mystery to Percy. Actually, if anything he was a bit of a dick to Percy, but he couldn't help himself from remembering the old Luke. The one that used to stand up to bullies for Percy, the one who would protect Percy, the one who was Percy's best friend. But now all he could see was just another bully. Sometimes, when it was just Luke and Percy, if none of Luke's other friends were around, glimpses of the old Luke relapsed. Percy would make a comment that Luke found funny, and he'd genuinely laugh, with a twinkle in his eye. Or maybe Luke wouldn't even harass him at all if none of his cronies were around. It seemed like Luke was still the same guy who was a friend to Percy. Not the menace he was now.

Or maybe that was just Percy and his wishful thinking.

Unfortunately today wasn't one of the days where Luke was alone. He had one of his other friends with him. Percy remembered his name was Ethan, only because he had an eyepatch. After a while, all of Luke's other friends just sort of blended together, indiscernible from each other, nothing special about any of them. Except for Ethan, since he lost an eye when he was younger and he's had to wear an eyepatch ever since.

Percy sighed, "What do you want Luke? Usually you come annoy me in the morning, not the afternoon."

"Yeah, well it's always fun to mix things up a bit." Luke snarled.

Percy tried to walk around Luke's arm but Ethan stepped in and blocked the way.

"I want you to stay away from that Annabeth girl. She's mine." Luke demanded.

Percy looked up at him appalled. "You want me to stay away from her? I feel like she can hang out with whoever she wants."

"Well don't feel to bad when she chooses to leave you for me then, nerd."

Percy sighed again, annoyed at Luke. It's obvious Annabeth could be with whoever she wanted. She seemed like a nice girl, hopefully she knew to stay away from jerks like Luke. But Percy turned to look at Luke, unconvinced in Annabeth's ability to differentiate the difference between the jerk that was Luke Castellan and the suave, charming student he could pretend to be. Luke had a way with words that made him seem completely trustable. Unfortunately for Percy, he was also tall and handsome with short, blond hair that was cropped to the side. He had a bright smile, and, as much as Percy hated to admit it, he was attractive. His only physical feature that could even seem ugly was a scar that ran from his cheek to his upper lip. And even then, some girls thought it was manly.

Luke didn't really need to tell Percy to stay away from Annabeth, because compared to Luke, Percy was nothing, right? Percy liked to consider himself handsome, at least that's what his mom calls him. He had raven black, messy hair and sea green eyes. He was just over six foot, but since practically everyone at school thought he was some nerd or loser, he figured his social status cut down on his attractiveness. It's not like he was a threat to someone like Luke.

"We aren't even together! We just met today and we're just friends."

Sure, Percy would be lying if he said he didn't want to be more than friends. Even if he just met her today. But with people like Luke at the school, where they get everything they want, it just didn't seem likely that Annabeth would ever want to be with someone like him. He doesn't even know why she agreed to sit with him at lunch tomorrow or why they're even friends.

"Just let me get to class, I don't wanna be late." Percy pleaded.

"Fine, Ethan, let's go. Stay away from her, Jackson." Luke and Ethan stocked off towards their class and left Percy alone in the hallway.

Percy quickly scurried in the opposite direction, towards his English class, just barely making it into class for the bell. He headed towards one of the only available seats in the class, at the back. He usually would've taken a nice seat at the front, but because of his encounter with Luke, he didn't have as much time to get to class early and choose a good seat.

Hopefully these seating arrangements weren't permanent.

Percy looked around at his desk mates, he recognized some of them. Directly in front of him, was Leo Valdez. He could only see the back of his head, but his curly, brown hair and slightly pointed ears were indistinguishable. Him and Leo had both gone to Goode High for three years, but they've never really talked. Percy knew Leo was really good at anything to do with building. He was the top of the class in both his auto and construction classes. He figured Leo probably thought he was just a nerd, like everyone else.

To Leo's right, was a very pretty girl named Piper Mclean. She's been going to the same school as Percy since the fifth grade. Her brown hair had a small braid on one side with a feather woven in. Percy remembered when he was younger and he would look into her eyes, he'd been confused because he couldn't figure out what colour they were. They always seemed to shift from green to blue, to brown, like a kaleidoscope. Her father, Tristan Mclean, was a famous actor. Everybody in school wanted to be friends with her since she was rich, or she had a mansion. But Piper didn't look the part of a millionaire. Sure she was pretty, but she didn't have designer clothes or the most expensive makeup.

She was very down to Earth and Percy could appreciate not letting money change who you are.

Of course that doesn't mean he isn't slightly jealous of her. Who wouldn't be? She could have whatever she desired and it'd probably be delivered on a golden platter. The popular girls clique at school have been trying to recruit her into their group of girls ever since they realized she was a somebody. The popular girls were the people that had the designer clothes and the newest makeup, they seemed more artificial than anything and they were constantly trying to lie or cheat their way to the top of the food chain. Piper had denied their requests every time and instead stuck with friends from childhood instead, through all of high school. Coincidentally, her best friend was Leo Valdez.

The two were engrossed in a conversation, about something… To be honest, Percy wasn't really paying any attention, he was still thinking about the two people in front of him. Once he stopped gazing into the distance, he automatically tuned into their conversation. He didn't want to eavesdrop, but it was pretty easy since the only thing he could hear was them.

"Why do you think he's staring at me?"

"I'm not sure. Maybe he's thinking really hard, and doesn't realize what he's doing."

"I've done that before, just zoned out. Usually I stare out a window, though. Not directly into someone's eyes."

It took Percy a moment to realize they were talking about him. And they were right. He was staring directly into Leo's eyes. No doubt creeping him out.

"Hey man, you okay?" Leo asked, waving a hand in front of his face to get Percy's attention.

Percy shook himself out of his stupor and focused on Leo. "Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry about that, I was just...thinking."

Leo gave him an impish grin, "Don't worry about it, no need to make up excuses to look at me, I know I'm attractive."

Piper shoved his arm, "Sorry about him, he's an idiot." She flashed Leo a look like, don't be so weird, you're freaking him out. "Hi, I'm Piper, Piper McLean. And this idiot is my best friend. Leo Valdez."

Percy laughed, partly because Leo seemed like a funny guy, partly because it was funny watching them bicker. "Hi, I already knew who you guys were, but you probably have no idea who I am. I'm Percy."

Percy considered sticking out a hand, but then he would've had to reach over his desk and lean and then he could trip, fall, make a fool of himself, the usual. So he decided against it.

"Oh." Piper said surprised, "We already knew who you were, too. We've actually went to the same grade since, like, the fifth grade. I guess those introductions were pointless then." Piper laughed and Percy gave her a smile.

He figured sitting someplace new couldn't be that bad.

As he continued talking with Leo and Piper, he got to learn a lot about them. He got to learn a lot more about their personalities and who they were as people, too. He'd like to think that they became friends during English class.

Conveniently enough, they didn't actually do anywork in class. Their teacher, Mr. Blofis, wanted to spend the time getting to know everyone, and he wanted everyone to get to know and become more comfortable with each other. He told everyone to get in groups of the people who sat near you and to ask each other questions. Whenever there was some spare time in between bonding activities, he would always tell a cool or fun personal story. Percy thought Mr. Blofis seemed like a cool teacher to have.

As the bell for the end of the day rang, Percy gathered his things and stood up.

"See you guys tomorrow." He said to Piper and Leo.

Piper flashed him a smile and Leo gave him a grin. "Yeah, it was nice getting to know you."

Percy gave them a lopsided grin and made his way to his locker to collect all of his other books. His grin glued to his face.

Maybe this year wouldn't be as bad as the other years, he thought.

* * *

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O

* * *

Percy wasn't sure what he expected to find when he opened the door to his apartment, whether it was his mom, or maybe some food she left out for him if she had to go work, but he didn't expect to find his cousins lazily lounged on his couch, watching the T.V and scrolling through their phones.

It wasn't uncommon for them to use Percy's apartment as a place to hangout, but Percy was genuinely confused as to how they managed to get here before he did.

"What are you guys doing here?" Percy sent them a quizzical look.

They didn't even bother to look at him when they replied.

"I'm eating your food."

"I'm watching your T.V."

Percy threw his bag into his room across the hall, "Okay...I meant how did you get here."

"We walked." They answered nonchalantly.

"Okay, but how did you get here so fast?"

"Well now you're asking the right questions." Thalia looked up at him and smirked.

"We ditched last period early and came here to raid your fridge." Nico answered.

Percy just shrugged. "Did you at least save me anything?"

"Yeah, there's food in the fridge." Thalia stood up to scope out the fridge once again, possibly to steal whatever food they left for Percy.

"So you ditched last, huh? It's only been the first day of school and you're probably gonna get a detention."

This time, Nico replied, "Well, we were skipping gym, it's not that big of a deal."

"Well at least nothing's changed." Percy said.

Thalia looked at Percy from behind the fridge door. "Speaking of things changing, what's this about you making a new friend? That seems surprisingly new for you."

Percy stuck his tongue out at Thalia, "You make it seem like I'm completely unable to talk to anybody new. I'll have you know, I talked to Leo Valdez and Piper McLean during fifth today, and they seemed to actually like me."

Thalia started to walk back to the couch, a drink in her hand. On the way back she ruffled Percy's hair, "Well I'm glad you can make friends, I was getting worried about you."

Nico piped up from the couch, "What's this Annabeth girl like, you made it seem like she was an angel."

Thalia cooed at him.

Percy blushed and tried to deny it, "All I said was that she was nice."

He crossed his arms and huffed.

"Aww don't be like that, Percy."

Even though his cousins were picking on him, he still loved them, it's how their relationship worked. They all bickered with each other, but they've known each other so long, that they'll always have each other's backs if there's ever a problem.

Thalia pulled him from his thoughts by announcing something, "Jason's coming back next week."

Percy looked at her, searching her face for any signs of her lying. Jason was Percy's cousin, and Thalia's brother. They were split up in their parent's divorce. Thalia lived with their mom in New York, Jason lived with their dad in California.

"That's awesome!" Nico said, his eyes still glued to the T.V screen. "How long is he staying for?"

"He'll be staying for a while." Thalia said. "Long enough to enroll for at Goode. Dad's job relocated him to New York, so now we all get to see more of each other."

"That's great." Percy exclaimed. "It's been so long since I've seen my favourite cousin." He shot a pointed look at Nico and Thalia.

"Oh, ha ha, very funny."

"Well you'll be seeing him this Friday night. We're throwing a Welcome Back party."

"What if I have plans?" Percy questioned, although he knew he had no plans. And it's not like he would miss Jason's party on purpose, but all of the potential family members that would be there freaked him out a little. Percy was never the best in social situations.

"Oh, come on." Nico said, he shot a look at Percy. "We both know you don't have any plans."

"That may be true, but I'd still like to know." Percy looked back at Thalia.

"I don't care if you have plans or not, I'm dragging your butt to that party if I have to." Thalia said, a determined look in her eyes. "Now shut up, the show just got to a good part."

Percy sighed and leaned back deeper on to the couch.

* * *

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O

* * *

Percy's mom found the three kids sprawled on the couch watching movies when she returned home from work a few hours later. It's not like the kids being there was a surprise. After all, Percy figured Thalia and Nico were like second and third children to his mom. They definitely considered her to be their mom away from their mom.

"Hey kids." Sally's greeting rang throughout the apartment. "How was the first day of school?"

"It was good." Percy called out to her.

"Yeah," Thalia's tone took on a teasing note, "Percy's made some new friends at school."

"And he even has a crush on one of them." Nico pitched in.

Percy gave them both menacing glares and they both started laughing and chuckling deviously.

"Well then Percy, we have much to discuss Percy." She gave him a knowing smile and Percy blushed and tried to hide his face. "Just let me change out of my work clothes."

Percy turned to Thalia and Nico. "I'm going to kill you guys." His voice deadly calm.

"We love you, too." They spoke in unison.

Nico looked at the clock, "It's almost time for dinner, I should get going to my house. Thanks for having me, Sally."

"Yeah I should get going, too." Thalia called out.

Percy's mom rushed over and gave the two kids a hug. "Alright guys, I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Of course." Thalia answered. They both walked out of the apartment and closed the door behind them.

"Great…" Percy muttered. "Embarrass me, then leave."

Sally took a seat beside him on the couch. "So tell me, who are these new friends?"

Percy told her about Piper and Leo, and how they were nice to him and they seemed to have a pleasant conversation. Purposefully leaving out Annabeth for now. He didn't like keeping secrets from his mom, but he'd prefer to tell her when he could figure out how he actually felt about her. Sure she was nice, and funny, and great. But did he have a crush on her? Percy didn't know.

"I remember Piper and Leo." Sally said.

Percy looked at her, confused, "You do?"

"Yeah," She chuckled, "They were best friends with Jason before he left for California."

"Oh, interesting." Percy commented.

"So you have a crush on this Piper girl?" Percy blushed, "Or maybe it's the Leo boy?" Percy looked at his mom, mortified.

"It's neither mom!"

"Okay, I'm just trying to say I won't judge you either way."

"Okay mom, that's enough!"

"So who's the girl then."

Percy considered changing the topic, but he figured his mom could understanding and maybe even give him some advice on the subject. "She's someone new. Her name is Annabeth, and she's really kind, and funny, and she seems like a really nice person. But I just met her today, so I don't think I can say I have a crush on her yet."

"This might seem like generic parent advice, but it works surprisingly well. Just follow your heart. It usually can lead you in the right direction."

This was why he loved his mom. She always knew what to say, or what to do for every situation. She was always caring and could help Percy figure out any problem he had.

"Thanks mom, I really appreciate it."

"Anytime sweetie." She kissed his forehead and got up from the couch.

Percy checked the time again, surprised to find it was so late. He said goodnight to his mom and went to bed.

Percy thought about the day that just happened. He'd made some friends. He talked to an insanely pretty girl without making a fool of himself, which was even more surprising since that almost never happened. Sure there were a few hiccups along the way, with Luke and Ethan, but honestly, nothing he couldn't overcome. He's managed to net let them bring him down before, he can do it again. And as Percy recounted the days events in his head, he went to bed with a smile and one thought, he can't wait for science class tomorrow.


	5. It's Not Really My Thing

**I'm back! This is something I quickly made, since I didn't want you guys to have no upload this week. The idea kinda just popped in my head, so I tried to take it further into something more fun. Hopefully I did that. Anyways, I've been spending my entire spring break writing a Soulmate AU! I'm honestly hoping it turns out amazing and all of you love it! Not much else I wanna say for this AN. I've just been chilling recently. Oh, lemme just self-plug real quick. Check out my other newest fic, it's called** _ **She's Perfect**. _**I had a lot of fun writing it and I think you all should check it out, please! Um, what else what else? Oh right, please review because I love ways to improve my writing and I just love hearing from you all in general! Anyway, that's enough for the self promo. All mistakes are mine, so if you see an please let me know! As always I hope you all enjoy!**

 **Words w/out AN: 2465**

 **Pairing(s): Percabeth, Jasper**

 **I am not Rick, so I own nothing.**

It's Not Really My Thing (Although You Could Be)

* * *

Percy _hates_ his job.

Like seriously, being a bouncer to a semi-popular nightclub sucks. The hours are long, he has the most _uncomfortable_ uniform in all of existence, his manager was a pain in Percy's butt, and the people are annoying.

Percy figured he had the _worst_ luck. When he applied for the job, he figured he would equally split his job inside and outside. He figured he would spend half the time outside, admitting people to the club, and the other half inside, running security and making sure everything was all in order.

Instead, there was _one_ person that stayed inside, and _one_ person that stayed outside.

And wouldn't you know, Percy was the one stuck outside. As he stood outside, he had the perfect view of the nightclub from the door. Jason Grace, the other bouncer, was leaning comfortably inside, chatting up some girl while Percy was stuck _outside_ , letting people in and searching for minors. Percy thought the door shift wouldn't have been _that_ bad, if it wasn't for the dreaded uniforms.

Okay, so the uniform wasn't _that_ bad.

It was just a black polo t-shirt with the company logo embroidered on it and a pair of dark pants, usually jeans.

The uniform wasn't really the problem, well it was, but it _wasn't_. The main problem was the weather. Percy was _stuck_ outside, in just a t-shirt and some jeans and he was _cold_. He tried to brave the elements, he really did, except as he watched Jason inside, all warm and cozy. He realized it was all futile and that he was destined to be cold, proving just how bad his luck could be.

Leading to _another_ reason Percy hated his job, their manager was _stingy_. His name was Dionysus and he would sucker people out of every last penny they had. He would cut corners and try to save money on _any_ costs from the nightclub.

Percy had complained to Dionysus many times, _he_ wanted warm and cozy shifts, _he_ wanted a better work uniform that wouldn't make him die from the cold. Dionysus grumbled, but in the end Percy had gotten a uniform jacket to wear. Of course it was cheap, and not very warm, but it _slightly_ helped.

He didn't get the shifts, but at least he has the jacket now.

Although Percy hated his job, he had a decent work ethic, so he tried to do it to the best of his ability.

Except, he really _wasn't_ meant to be a bouncer.

Percy liked to consider himself a people person. He liked interacting with people, it was one of the better parts of the job. He got to meet loads of people. He greeted them with enthusiasm. Sometimes he'd even ask them how their day was. The longer Percy stayed as a bouncer, the more people he got to know. He learned about all of the regulars. The people he saw once, then never saw again. The people who were celebrating birthdays, now able to legally drink alcohol. It was fun to Percy, he liked it.

Unfortunately most of the people who came easily dismissed him. They were too self centered to care or they thought they were _better_ than him. A _lot_ of the people were rude. Luckily, some of the acquaintances he met were enough to distract him, whether it was from the terrible job, the horrible cold, the terribly long shifts or the rude customers.

He was all smiles and sunshine until he had to forcibly remove someone. He _hated_ having to put on this _fake_ tone of authority. It's not like he had any problems with looking the part of the bouncer, though. Percy was 6'5" and was fairly well built. He went to the gym and swam a lot so he liked to consider himself fit. He just _hated_ to disappoint people. The look on their face when he told someone they had to leave, or the way they'd always make him feel guilty. The people that were hostile jerks to him he _no_ problem kicking out, but he still felt _slightly_ guilty when they left.

Those people he didn't like seeing made his already hard job, especially harder.

He didn't want to hurt anyone or anything, but sometimes he had to drag people out of line, kicking and screaming. Percy would be crestfallen if it turned out he actually _injured_ someone. Percy was actually just a big softie. His mom said he was the kindest soul in the world and all of his friends agreed with her.

So what if she raised him right?

Unfortunately for him, the nice people were few and far inbetween, while the night was mainly filled with arrogant jerks.

Percy figured in the end, his job wouldn't be so bad. All he needed was warmth, a kind boss and _polite_ nightclub-goers.

It paid the bills and Percy just sighed, figuring that'd have to be enough.

* * *

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O

* * *

Percy was working his usual night shift one evening. He was quietly whistling the tune of one of the songs he could hear from the nightclub. The faded music giving him something to focus on when there was no line or people wanting to get in.

During this job, Percy had learned to guess ages well. Sometimes he only asked for I.D to see if his guess was right. A group of girls had walked up to him, he figured they were all around his age, 24.

They all wore excited grins on their faces, except for one girl. A cute, strike that, _beautiful_ blonde haired girl. She was practically being dragged along by her friends. Her face showed she was angry, but tiredness was seeping through her features. Usually the girls that Percy saw were all pretty, in their dresses and make-up. They were ready for a night out with their hair done up and stuff like that.

This blonde woman was _nothing_ like that. She hadn't painted her nails, her hair wasn't anything special, she didn't seem particularly excited to be here. She didn't seem _anything_ like the usual people that came here.

But she intrigued Percy more than anyone else.

Or maybe it was the fact that her _long_ , tan legs were perfectly displayed by her grey dress.

Her friends were all animatedely talking amongst themselves, every now and then they would turn to look at the blonde girl.

There was a total of three of them. The blonde girl that Percy couldn't take his eyes off of. A taller girl to her right that had spiky black hair and a matching black dress and a shorter girl with choppy brown hair. Her dress was pink and he's pretty sure he's seen her around Jason before.

As they got closer, Percy could hear more and more of their conversation.

The choppy haired girl looked at the blonde. "It's your birthday! At least try to have a good time."

"Yeah." The spiky haired girl. "Where's the birthday spirit?"

The blonde huffed. "Back at my apartment. Where I should be."

They were standing in front of Percy now. He had to forcibly restrain his eyes from wandering back to her legs, so he focused on her eyes instead. And _wow_ he wasn't expecting that.

They were a stormy grey, like nothing he'd ever seen before. They perfectly clashed with the grey of her dress, making them stand out even more.

Her friends were idly staring at him, waiting for him to do something, except Percy was too busy staring at the enticing grey eyes in front of him.

And they were staring _back_ now.

She seemed to analyze him. They flitted up and down Percy's body and he wasn't sure whether that was a good thing or not. They seemed to be calculating everything she took in. Thinking about _all_ of the potential possibilities of what could happen next. Suddenly, she smiled and turned to her friends.

"Well, are we going in?"

The choppy haired had been eyeing him and the blonde suspiciously, but she turned to her friend anyway. "Assuming this man let's us in."

The choppy haired girl suddenly smiled, as if she'd come up with a brilliant plan all of a sudden. "I'm Piper, by the way, and this is Thalia and _Annabeth_." She pointed to the spiky black haired girl and the _gorgeous_ blonde respectively.

So the blonde's name was Annabeth? Now Percy didn't have to I.D her so he could learn her name. Piper said Annabeth's name _differently_ , which made Percy wonder what she was trying to do.

"So what's your name?" Piper asked.

Percy smiled, pleasantly surprised that they wanted to talk to him. "I'm Percy. Nice to meet you." He said it to all of them, looking at each of them, but he held eye contact with Annabeth for a fraction of a second longer than the other girls.

Piper smiled at him, like she realized what he did with Annabeth. Hopefully he didn't come off as creepy. Was he even doing this right?

He's never really had that much experience with flirting. Hopefully he didn't mess up or something.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jason move. Jason had been watching the entrance, and when he saw Piper and them show up, he casually walked over to Percy.

"Hey, what's up guys?" He gave Piper a quick kiss and Percy raised his eyebrows.

Since when did Jason have a girlfriend? Percy was going to need to interrogate him later. Thalia rolled her eyes when she saw him and Annabeth gave him a smile.

"Not much." Thalia said. "Just trying to give _this_ girl a good time." She gave a pointed look to Annabeth.

"It's okay, though." Piper piped in. "If she needs some air before we go in she can stay out here for a while." Piper smirked at him while she said this. She ignored the questioning look from Thalia.

Percy realized what she was doing. She was trying to set _him_ up. Was he _that_ noticeable when he tried to flirt? Was he that _bad_ that he needed help? Percy decided to dismiss all of his troubles and let Piper do all of the work for him.

He figured it was was best for everyone like that.

"Yeah, I can keep her company until she goes in. It gets pretty lonely out here so someone to talk to for a few minutes doesn't seem that bad." Percy looked at Annabeth, suddenly realizing she hasn't agreed or disagreed to staying outside. "Uh, you know, if you want to?"

Piper grabbed Jason's hand and pushed Thalia in front of her. "It's settled then. Come find us when you're ready to come in, Annabeth."

"Um, okay." Annabeth said. She looked like she wanted to say more, but she took another glance at Percy and kept her mouth shut.

Jason, Piper and Thalia stumbled in to the nightclub, getting lost in the crowd. Percy watched them leave, when he couldn't see them anymore he turned to Annabeth. They locked eyes and Percy wasn't sure what to do next. Her calculating, grey eyes boring into him.

Eventually Percy speaks, "Not gonna lie, I'm pretty sure she's trying to set us up." He played it off as a joke, but was secretly hoping her tactics would work. He'd love to get to know Annabeth.

Her intimidating glare lightened, her eyes became softer and she was smiling now. She laughed "Yeah, she's _subtle_ like that."

Percy found himself laughing, too. "So, lemme get this straight. While you're friends are inside, exploiting Jason for his 30% employee discount, you're outside, in this chilly weather."

She looked around, as if just sensing how cold it was. Her strapless dress wasn't doing her any favours for keeping her warm. Percy shrugged off his jacket and offered it to her. After all, his mom raised a gentleman.

"No, it's fine. You can keep it."

"Honestly, I stand in this weather for hours at a time. I'm used to it."

She smiled appreciatively as she slipped the thin jacket on. "To get back to you on that question. Nightclubs aren't really my thing. But my friends _really_ wanted to go out for my birthday, so here we are."

Percy nodded in understanding. He knew what it was like to want to please your friends. "Well what is your _thing_?"

"Libraries mostly. I'm taking Architecture and Design at NYU. I really like buildings." She had a gleam in her eye when she talked about this.

"Architecture? That sounds awesome. It must be so cool to get to design buildings."

"It really is awesome. I got accepted for an internship at an architecture firm recently. I can't wait to start. What about you? What's your _thing_?"

Percy sighed and looked around him. "Not _this_. I'm not gonna lie, being a bouncer sucks, other than the 30% employee discount, that's awesome. In general though, being a bouncer isn't the best. I _really_ want to be a teacher. I love helping children so I'm currently enrolled in a teacher's college. It's actually a lot of fun, getting to interact with all the new people. The only people I interact with here are either drunk or passed out."

Annabeth nodded, "Well that's what you have me for! I'm neither drunk, nor passed out."

Percy laughed. He really enjoyed talking to Annabeth. She seemed so _interesting_ , like there was so much more to discover with her.

Unfortunately, he knew she should be getting to her friends soon. "Uh, I'm sure you don't wanna spend your birthday talking to me, though. Your friends are probably waiting for you, too."

She furrowed her brow, she seemed in deep thought. "That's true, I wouldn't wanna keep them waiting." She relaxed her face and shifted it into a smile. The gleam in her eye returned. "But, I wouldn't be opposed to spending a day that _isn't_ my birthday talking to you. You know, if you wanted to. Maybe a coffee tomorrow at noon?"

Percy smirked, silently thanking Jason's girlfriend he never even knew of. "Yeah, that doesn't seem like that bad of an idea."

She gave him one last smile before snatching his phone and putting her number in it, happily trotting into the nightclub, completely forgetting to return his jacket

Percy didn't mind the cold, though. Since every now and then, when his eyes wandered to inside the nightclub, he'd smile as he locked eyes with Annabeth.

* * *

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O

* * *

So it turns out the being a bouncer wasn't really Percy's _thing_. That's okay though, since his grey eyed, blonde haired girlfriend _was_.


	6. The Times They Met

**So I've been working on the soulmate au but I'm a _really_ slow worker. I'm like a quarter done though. I have a lot of free time and I'm trying to dedicate more to writing. Anyway that was just a quick update. Here's a one-shot for all of you. Let me know what you think! All mistakes are mine and hopefully you enjoy!**

 **Words w/out AN: 1788**

 **Pairing(s): Percabeth**

 **I am not Rick, so I own nothing.**

The Times They Met

* * *

He first saw her on the roof of their apartment building.

At least he assumed she lived in the same apartment building, who breaks onto the roofs of _other_ apartment buildings?

She was just sitting there, legs dangling over the edge. The gentle autumn breeze lightly ruffled her honey blonde hair, making it cascade down her back in ringlets. She hadn't noticed him yet and Percy was wondering whether he should leave and not disturb her.

It's not like he needed to be on the roof either. He just liked to go up there to think. It was better than his cramped apartment.

But then again, it was _his_ spot. He called dibs.

Percy looked behind him to the hallway leading back to the building, then he looked back to the girl. He wasn't scared or anything. He's talked to girls before.

He ventured forward, avoiding making any sounds. As he got closer he could make out the pattern on her sweater. It was flowery and orange. She was also wearing skinny jeans.

Just as he might've maybe said something; she spoke.

"Are you going to speak? Or just continue to stare at me?"

Percy was flabbergasted, and slightly embarrassed to have been caught. As far as he knew, he hadn't made any sounds. How did she know he was there?

Percy chalked it up to witchcraft and spluttered out a response. "Yes. I, uh, I am going to speak."

The girl turned around. Now that he had a good view of her face, he was stunned into silence.

She was beautiful.

Her sun kissed skin glowed in the afternoon light. She was literally breathtaking. The most interesting part?

Her eyes.

He had never seen that colour before. They were a striking grey that perfectly reflected storm clouds. In this light they seemed to be shifting, changing from dark to light.

"I guess you were wrong." She spoke. "You _aren't_ going to speak."

Percy frowned, undignified. "I'll have you know I can do the words."

She smirked. "You can _do_ the _words?_ "

Percy huffed. This incredibly attractive girl was making him look like a fool. He _can_ talk. He swears!

And with that she walked by him, lightly brushing past with a lingering scent of lemons.

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O

The second time they met he was in line to buy frozen yogurt.

Percy had walked into the 24/7 convenience store late at night, craving froyo. It was around 2:00 am and he lazily walked to the freezer at the back. The employee at the register was half asleep but stood up straighter when he heard the bell on the door.

Percy spotted the yogurt. Allowing his cravings to control him, he scooped up cases upon cases of froyo, waddling to the front desk with at least _twelve_ of them.

In retrospect, it was _way_ too many.

As he hobbled over to the front desk, the door chimed. Percy glanced over to the door, wondering who else would be crazy enough to come here this late.

Percy looked over and saw _her_.

"It's you!" He gasped, way louder than he meant to say. His bundle of froyo almost slipping out of his grasp.

Percy felt bad for the employee. He probably just wanted to sleep, but instead he had to deal with a guy who wanted to buy _way_ too much froyo.

Percy looked over to the employee and cringed. "Sorry..."

The employee, his nametag read Wilson, just shook his head and waved his hand. He slowly lowered his head until he was practically sleeping on the cash register.

Percy looked back to the girl, "What are you doing here?"

"Not getting _froyo_ , obviously."

Percy was getting tired of this random girl, whose name he didn't even know, making him feel look like an idiot.

"Listen, buddy." Percy started. "I don't even know your name. I am way too tired. I have way too much confidence and I have way too much froyo. I don't have time for this."

The girl just laughed. She _laughed._ "So he _can_ use the words! I'm impressed!"

Percy smiled. That's right, she _should_ be impressed. "Well, I'm Percy."

She smirked, and Percy found himself even more attracted. "I'm Annabeth."

 _Annabeth_.

She extended a hand for him to shake, and Percy being Percy, tried to shake it.

And there goes all the froyo.

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O

The next time he sees her, they're trapped together forever and they're never going to escape and they're definitely going to die.

No exageration.

It turns out she actually did live in the same building as him. He ran into her in the elevator.

Percy had just came back from a bar with his friends. One of his friends, Jason, just got a promotion and Percy and two other friends were celebrating with him.

Percy walked home, since he was responsible and didn't drink and drive. Also, it just so happened the bar was a block away from his building.

He stumbled through the main entrance. Percy was slightly tipsy, very sleepy, and _extremely_ exhausted after walking from the bar. It turns out one block was a lot further than it seems when you're slightly tipsy.

Percy called the elevator.

The doors dinged open and he successfully made it inside.

Percy liked to think he _wasn't_ drunk. He just had a couple beers with his friends. He didn't even feel drunk. He was still able to think properly and he could mostly walk right. He hadn't tried speaking yet. Since his run in with Annabeth, Percy liked to call it _using the words_.

After a few wrong button presses, it looked like Percy was stopping at the third, fourth, and sixth floor also, he managed to hit the _close doors_ button.

Yeah... He wasn't drunk.

Just as the doors were closing, a hand snaked its way in between them, keeping them open.

Percy mentally groaned. Now he was going to have to share an elevator with someone else and possibly (more like probably) make a fool of himself.

"Annabeth?" he found himself saying, as the owner of the hand slipped in.

"It is I." She gave Percy a mock bow.

"What are you doing here?" Percy definitely didn't want Annabeth to see him slightly drunk. Them together in an elevator was the recipe for disaster. He's _so_ going to make a fool of himself.

"What am I doing here? In the elevator of the apartment building I live in?"

So she _did_ live here.

"Right. Well... what are you doing here at a time like this?" Percy checked his phone. It was eleven at night. That's a fairly late time to be out, right?

"I was out jogging." She said. "I like the cool night air. I finished my run and saw you stumble through the front doors. Are you drunk?"

"No!" He claimed. "I've only had a couple. It was with my friends." He felt like he had to defend his inability to walk right now.

"Well... here we are." She moved a bit closer to him. "Together in the elevator."

Was she flirting with him? Usually he would mumble and stutter to any girl that talked to him, much less flirted with him. Percy's had a few beers, though. Now he was full of liquid confidence. He felt like he could actually hold a conversation, maybe even flirt back?

Percy smirked and leaned against the wall, accidentally hitting a couple more buttons. "Yes, we are here. In an elevator. Together."

He's doing pretty well if he says so himself.

Annabeth rolled her eyes, but smiled anyway.

A big jolt stopped the smile that was spreading on his face.

The elevator stopped going up. It stopped moving all together.

"Oh God, we're gonna die. We're trapped forever." Percy immediately said. He considered running around in circles and screaming but there wasn't much room. Instead he opted to sit down and lean against one of the walls. Annabeth's glare made him want to shrivel into a corner and hide.

Her eyes are scary.

"We aren't going to die, Percy relax." She said in a calm and reasonable voice. "I wonder why we stopped."

"No clue." Percy said, trying and failing to calm down. They were just trapped in a big metal box, suspended 60 feet in the air by a few wires. No biggie. He got up and randomly pressed a few more buttons. Maybe one of them was a _make everything magically work again_ button.

"There isn't one of those doors in the ceiling we can climb out of." She noticed.

"There isn't? But all the movies have them." Percy said, focusing on the cieling.

She laughed and Percy felt better about his flirting skills. Too bad they were going to die.

"How are you so calm right now?" He asked Annabeth. Percy was constantly shifting positions, too anxious to stay in one place.

"I don't know. It's just another problem that needs to get solved, you know?" She shrugged.

"I don't know how you're doing that. I feel like we'll die very soon and there's still so much I haven't done."

"I know what you mean. There's still a lot that I wanna do." She motioned to the doors and they tried to pull them apart but they were stuck closed.

"Well the doors are stuck. It's official. We are going to die. We will not survive. It will be fast and painful and help is never goi-" Percy rambled until he was cutoff.

She kissed him.

She was really good at it, too.

"Sorry!" She said right after. "You were just talking _so_ much and I was gonna punch you to shut you up, but I felt like you would've complained even more."

She didn't seem very sorry, though.

 _Screw it_ , Percy thought. His confidence was dwindling and he was in a life or death situation. Also she was _really_ pretty. He surged forward and kissed her again.

They were making out and all thoughts of dying left Percy's head. When they finally finished, Percy glanced at the wall of buttons he had accidentally pressed so many times before.

"Oh." He realized. "About that elevator thing..."

She glanced to the buttons and saw the emergency stop button pushed in. "You're an idiot."


	7. Thankful For Math Homework

**POSTING THIS HERE BC I WON'T HAVE TIME FOR A PART TWO UNTIL SOMETIME IN THE FUTURE.**

 **Welp. I've now convinced myself to make a multichap about high schooler Percy and Annabeth. It can't be avoided now. Ik it's a cliche but oh well:/ Anyway about _this_ fic. I'm probably gonna add a part two and three (maybe?) to this, or else I would've put it with **_**The Ways They Met: Percabeth.**_ **I cranked this out between the hours of 12 am and 4 am in the past two days. It didn't take eight hours, but those were the timeframes I allowed myself to work on this. Now, since it was written between 12-4 am, hopefully you all will be lenient on the spelling mistakes, but as always all mistakes are mine. If you spot any try and call me out on it early or else I'll be like "it's too late now oh well". (just a thought, maybe I should add this to the end, since it's getting pretty lengthy do any of you even read the AN? Yep, it's going to the end now) ANYWAY, I tried to make this silly and fun. Lemme know if it worked out? Please review, it means a lot. And as always, I hope you all enjoy.**

 **Words w/out AN: 1794**

 **Pairing(s): Percabeth, Jasper**

 **I am not Rick, so I own nothing.**

Thankful for Math Homework

* * *

Percy rushed to the cafeteria, dodging and weaving through the hallways. He had to get there quickly, nothing was more important. He pushed open the cafeteria doors and slammed his stuff onto his usual lunch table. He plopped into an open seat beside Jason.

Beside him, Jason asked, "Why the rush?"

"A plan! What's the a plan?" Percy responded, ignoring his question.

"I was gonna start with the sandwich, then move to the pudding cup. But I really want the pudding cup so I might have it first." Leo said, oblivious to Percy's actual meaning.

"Not about what food you're gonna eat, Leo!" Percy exclaimed. He threw his head back and sighed. "Amateurs. My best friends are amateurs."

"What are _you_ talking about, then?" Jason asked.

"A plan for the new girl." Percy said. "I saw her in the hallways and she's beautiful. I rushed here as fast as I could so you guys could help me impress her. She should be entering the cafeteria any minute."

"You rushed here as fast as you could?" Leo asked.

"Yeah."

"And yet we made it here before you." Jason muttered. "This is a terrible idea. Have you tried talking to her?"

"You're right, Jason." Leo agreed. "That _is_ a terrible idea. Talking to her would _never_ work. Percy's right, we need a plan."

Jason sighed while Percy vigorously nodded. "So what do we have?" He asked.

"Nothing yet." Leo said. "Tell us about the girl."

"Uhh, well she's new to the school. I saw her this morning. Her hair is really long and blonde. She's tanned and has really long legs." Percy described.

"Blonde and tan aren't the best descriptions." Jason said. "What about her eye colour or something. Or even her name. What's her name?"

"Uhh."

"You don't even know her name?" Jason asked.

"Uhh."

Jason sighed.

"Well," Leo said. "I'm convinced, this is practically fool proof. Nothing could go wrong."

Percy was eyeing the door, waiting for the girl to walk through. "Look. There she is." He pointed to the cafeteria entrance.

"She's talking with Piper." Jason noted.

"She's talking with Piper." Percy panicked. "Why is she talking with Piper."

"I'm not sure." Leo said. "Maybe w-"

"They're walking towards us." Percy interrupted, smacking Jason's arm. "They're walking towards _us_."

"I can see that, and I really don't know why you're saying everything twice. We heard you the first time."

"I think Percy's going crazy." Leo stated.

"I think he's _already_ crazy." Jason said. "And this is all that's left."

Leo and Jason started laughing, but Percy smacked the table a few times and shut them up. Piper and the girl have walked within earshot.

Jason immediately smiled at his girlfriend, Piper. She sat beside him and Jason gently stretched his arm around her waist. Annabeth sat across from Percy, beside Leo.

 _That lucky punk_.

"Hey guys." Piper smiled. "This is Annabeth. She's new. Annabeth, this is Jason. He's my boyfriend, And this is Percy and Leo."

Percy tuned Piper out after he heard her name.

 _Annabeth_.

She was even more beautiful up close, Percy thought. With her intoxicating smile and unique grey eyes. She was practically like those greek gods he had been learning about in History class.

Maybe he _was_ going crazy.

Nonsense.

"Hey." Jason greeted, nodding at her.

Leo grinned like an elf. He eyed Percy. "It's nice to me-"

"HI!" Percy interrupted. "I'm, uh, Per- Percy." He blushed and held out his hand for a handshake. Annabeth puzzlingly shook it.

"Oh my god." He heard Jason mutter beside him.

"Well." Piper interjected. "It was good seeing you guys, but I still need to show Annabeth around the school. Next is the library."

They got up and left, leaving just Percy, Jason, and Leo. Percy watched as they exited.

He only looked back when he felt Jason smack him.

"Well that went well." Leo said.

"Did you think so?" Percy asked. "I thought it did, too."

"Yeah the part where you _yelled 'hi'_ was really smooth." Leo continued.

"Thanks man. I appreciate."

Jason laughed and soon, Leo was too.

"What are you guys laughing at?"

"You, dude. Oh my god, that was terrible."

"Especially the part where you couldn't even say your own name properly."

This caused another round of laughter.

"See? This is why I need a plan. I should never have been put in that situation. If anything, it's Piper's fault."

"Trust me, it was not Piper's fault."

"Yeah, that _flawless flirting_ was all you."

"You guys are actually useless." Percy said. "I need _supportive_ friends."

"After what I just saw," Leo joked. "You need a lot more than that. You need basic social skills just so you can speak proper sentences to her."

"The plan guys! That's why I need it."

"Alright, what if you like, saved a baby from a burning building. That might impress her."

"Yeah, and while you're at it, you could stop an armed bank robbery and maybe save the world a couple times?"

"Yeah." Percy agreed. "But like, how could I do that, you know?"

"Well if you start looking for burning buildings or babies that got stuck in trees, we'll bring Annabeth over there."

"You know," Percy said. "I feel like you guys aren't taking me seriously."

"What gave you that idea?" Jason said. His words dripping with sarcasm.

"I'm serious, guys." Percy begged. "I need your help."

"Well, if you're being serious… I guess you could save a cat from a tree, not a baby." Leo joked.

"Just be yourself man, trying to be someone else never works out." Jason said.

"Just be myself. Okay. I can do that. Just be myself." Percy repeated, like a mantra.

* * *

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O

* * *

Percy was rushing back to his locker at the end of the day. He forgot some important math worksheets in his locker that he needs. Percy didn't know when the school locked their doors.

He didn't want to get trapped inside.

He had been thinking about Annabeth all day (in a non-creepy way, he assures). He just wanted another chance to talk to her. To make a better first impression.

"Annabeth!" Percy yelled in shock. Luckily no one else was milling around the school.

"Percy." She said.

"What are you doing here?" Percy asked. The school year had just started and no after school clubs or sports had started yet. There really wasn't any reason for someone to be here.

"I just had some last minute registration forms I had to sign for the school." She replied.

"Ah yes, very believable. Not suspicious at all." Percy joked.

She laughed and Percy mentally sighed because _he_ had made her do that. "Yes, nothing shady or suspicious here. What about you? Why are you here?"

Percy brandished his math homework with an excessive grin on his face. He was probably _too_ proud, if anything. "I left some papers in my locker. I had to come back and get them."

"Ahh, I see." She nodded.

"So how are you liking the school so far?" Percy asked, trying to maintain the conversation (and succeeding, if you asked him).

"It's really good actually. You guys have a lot of extracurriculars that interest me. I'll have to swap my schedule around to fit some of them around. Although I've only been here one day and three guys have hit on me. But other than that, the people seem nice."

"What?" Percy flared. It was definitely _not_ jealousy. "Who were they?"

"I honestly don't even know. They never even told me their names. They just came up to me and used some lame pickup line. Piper and I scared them away." She laughed

"That's good. The people here are usually pretty good. But there are a few jerks." Percy said.

"I'll keep my eyes out." Annabeth assured. "Are you taking any interesting courses."

"Yeah I am. I'm taking a photography course because I heard it was easy and I still need an art credit. I heard all you do is wander around the school and take a few photos. Literally perfect for me. But there's so many crazy courses here. There's also a lot of after school activities and sports. I'm gonna be signing up for swimming as soon as it's available."

Annabeth laughed. "That photography class sounds like a lot of fun. I might have to squeeze it in. You swim? Are you any good?"

Percy was pretty good, if he was being honest. He's probably one of the best in the school. "I'm good enough." He said.

"That's cool."

"Yeah, the swim meets are a lot of fun. Last year was exhilarating."

"There's swim meets?"

"Yeah, against other schools and stuff. I made it to state last year."

She raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Impressive."

"I guess so, yeah." Percy rubbed the back of his neck. "All my friends were there so I just saw it as hanging out with the my friends with a couple swimming breaks."

"Hmm." She said. "Maybe I'll have to stop by one of these meets and cheer you on."

Percy mentally did a double take. _Was she flirting?_

Probably not.

"So how was the tour around the school. I remember my first time here I was really intimidated."

"Yeah, this place is huge. But I think I have it all down. Piper was a really good guide."

"Yeah, she's a people-person."

Annabeth looked down at her shoes. "You know." She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "I'm still new to the area, and Piper may have shown me around the school, but I still need to learn more about the town. Maybe you could show me around? To like the best burger place, or something?"

 _She was flirting._ That is incredible. It makes Percy job so much easier. She practically asked him out right there. She didn't, but semantics.

"Percy?" She asked.

"What? Oh, yeah. That sounds good. Very good. Maybe I could get your number? So we can talk more about… burgers?" Percy grinned.

She smiled. "Yeah, sure." She took his phone and put in her number.

"I should get going." She said. "My dad's been waiting outside for a while, now."

"What? Oh, my bad. Sorry."

"No problem, Percy." Annabeth slowly backed away. "See ya."

"Yeah, bye." Percy called out. "I'll text you! On the phone!" He waved his phone around for good measure.

He immediately texted Jason and Leo.

 _Percy: Im a genius_

They didn't reply, but it wouldn't have mattered if they did. He was too elated to care about anything they might've said. He looked down at the new contact in his phone and smiled.

Man, was he thankful for math homework.

* * *

 **And now, news _not_ about this fic. For the soulmate au, I'm steadily working away on chapter two of it. It's going to be around 3-4 chapter, each around 6-9k words each. I'm having trouble with adding details to the second chapter, tho. I haven't a clue how I've done this, but my first chapter is like 8.9k words. And the second is like 2k and I'm almost done writing about the main plot points. I've added some sub plots and whatnot, but Idk how I'll keep it up for another two chapters. So if I can keep up the subplots, the fic will be four chapters at around 6-9k words each. If I can't it'll be three chapters around 8k each. This is all hypothetical anyway, maybe I'll die and no one here will ever know. Anyway, do any of you actually read the AN? send me a pm or leave a review if you do. Also i've never done an AN at the end of the fic before, so I can't end it with "As always, I hope you all enjoy" so now it's gonna be I hope you all enjoyed!**


	8. see you around

**AN's have a new home now**

 **Words w/out AN: 1079**

 **Pairing(s): Percabeth**

 **I am not Rick, so I own nothing.**

see you around

* * *

Percy hovers around the library tables.

It's his first time at the library and he's not really sure how things work here. After a long, hard battle with the _Dewey decimal system_. He finally manages to find the book he needs.

Like seriously? Did there have to be _so_ many numbers?

Anyway, most of the tables are pretty full and Percy searches for an empty seat. He casually walks around the group of tables in the middle of the library, looking for an open seat.

He finds one across from some blonde girl.

She's reading and taking notes from some textbook. Her hair falls in locks around her face, and she's slightly sticking her tongue out as she concentrates on copying the notes. She doesn't even seem to notice him walk up.

Percy tries to slowly pull out the chair, careful to avoid making sounds.

Instead what he gets is a long, screeching sound of metal against linoleum flooring. He cringes and expects everyone in the library to be looking at him now.

He quickly considers running out the nearest exit out of embarrassment, but then he would be stealing the book he so diligently looked for. Half the people have already gone back to what they were doing, but he mouths the word _sorry_ and awkwardly waves to the other half. Hiding his blush, he quickly takes a seat.

He stuffs his face into the book, pretending to read as he avoids the glares from everyone else. He figures everyone else had stopped staring him down, so he decides to lower his book and quickly glance and see if anyone could _possibly_ be staring at him. He knew they probably weren't, but he checked anyway.

Except, Percy wasn't expecting to see the girl sitting across from him staring at him so intensely. Like, earlier she was intently reading, but she's practically put the book away and has now preoccupied herself with staring at him.

Her grey eyes bore into him.

"Uh, hello." He says.

"Hello." She curtly replies, still examining him.

Percy scratches the back of his neck again. Maybe she thinks he's being rude for not asking to sit by her? Should he ask if it's cool to sit here?

"Uh…" He starts to say. Percy tries to think of a way to ask if he could sit at this table, even though he's already been sitting here for a while. He ends up scrapping the idea, choosing to stay quiet instead.

"Nice," she says. "You must be good with words."

"What?" He complains. "As a matter of fact, I am _very_ good with words."

"I feel like _very_ good is a bit of an exaggeration. Sure, you're able to use them, but I wouldn't say you could use them _very_ well."

"Who are you to say I can't use the words?" Percy asks. He realizes that the sentence was stupid. He hopes she doesn't realize it but from the look on her face, it seems she has.

Percy sighs in defeat. He probably can't win this argument so he drops it all together. "Hi, I'm Percy." He says instead.

She tilts her head. Her eyes gleam of victory but she doesn't brag. She extends an arm, "I'm Annabeth."

Percy shakes it and by now, he's completely forgotten about the book he so longingly searched for. He's having too much fun talking with Annabeth.

He looks at the pile of books that she set aside. "What are those?" He asks.

She glances at them, "Just a bit of architecture homework I had to finish up. What about you?"

He glances to the forgotten book in his hands, "I came here to find this book." He lifts it and shows her. "It was impossible to find, though. The freaking _Dewey decimal system_ …." He mutters.

"What was that?" Annabeth asks. "Did you just curse out the Dewey decimal system?"

"What do you mean 'did I just curse out the _Dewey decimal system?_ ' Of course, I did. It sucks."

"It's pretty easy. Now you can't even use numbers, either?" Annabeth laughs.

Percy huffs and crosses his arms. "I can use numbers, and words, too."

"And I'm proud of you for it." Annabeth teases. "Did you know Dewey's first name was _Melvil_?"

"Ha, Melvil. He deserves it for making such a terrible book system." Percy says. "Wait, why do you know his first name? I didn't even know what the whole system was called until I saw one of those signs hanging up for k-, everyone. Signs for everyone…"

"They're for kids, Percy."

"No, they're not."

"I'll just let you keep believing that." She says. "And how could you say it's terrible? It's by far the best, is used nationwide and has been in use since 1876."

"Uh…" Percy says. "How do you know so much about the Dewey decimal system? _Why_ do you know so much?"

She shrugs. "It's a good system of classification."

"Oh my god." Percy laughs. "Like, no one has a favourite system of book classification, Annabeth. You weirdo."

"At least I can use words and numbers properly!"

"I can, I swear!" Percy says laughing.

Annabeth's laughing, too. She has her head tucked into her arms on the table. When she comes back up her face has gone red.

He looks around quickly and suddenly realizes they're making a scene. A few of the people in the library are staring at them, like their laughter is the worst possible thing in the world right now. Percy stopped laughing out loud. He was kind of embarrassed but he was having too much fun to care.

He kicks Annabeth's leg under the table with his. She looked up at him, her laughter dying down but there were still tears in her eyes. He tries to signal with his eyes at the people around them. She gets the message and looks around, a few people were still staring.

"Oh, screw them." She says dismissively. Annabeth looks at her phone. "I've spent more time here than I wanted to. I should probably leave now."

"Ah, right. I'll just _actually_ read my book now."

Annabeth laughs. "Well, it's been fun."

"See you around?"

"Hmm," She thinks. "I'm usually around here. Guess you'll have to find me."

She walks away and Percy waves.

He's an idiot. _He should've asked for her number._

He looks down at the book he should've started reading a while ago and sighs. He'd much rather be laughing with Annabeth.

* * *

 **Hello y'all its me**. **I'm back, we chilling. I'm hip.**

 **Got this one shot for you peeps, hopefully you like it, if not oh well. It has lowkey inspired me and things might be happening soon (real soon) ((not actually soon, Im lazy))**

 **I feel like I could continue this, maybe a part 2? but then again, they don't have to get together all the time, it's how they met, not how they formed a relationship. Idk i'm thinking, Im thinking.**

 **Any sorts of grammar has gone out the window with this AN, my laziness has ascended.**

 **Anyway, all mistakes are mine and I hope you all enjoyed!**

 **.**

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 **drop me a pm looking for peeps to talk to**

 **also almost 40 favourites? you people are crazy what are you even doing, liking my stuff. You should be ashamed of yourselves.**

 **just joking tho, I appreciate all of you and check my other stuff out (or don't, I'd understand)**


	9. the girl on the train

**sheesh I still can't get used to the AN's being at the bottom**

 **Words w/out AN: 1042**

 **Pairing(s): Percabeth**

 **I am not Rick, so I own nothing.**

the girl on train

* * *

The first time Percy saw her, he was enamoured. He stood there like a creep, watching her from over the seats of the train. He didn't mean to stop and stare, it just kind of happened.

Percy usually never takes the train, but it had been a long day and the train was the fastest way to get back home from his cousin's house for someone that didn't own a car. He was still staring at her and luckily there weren't that many other people in the train car since he was blocking the entire aisleway. Everyone else was sitting in their sear, minding their own business. Everyone but him, that is.

She still hadn't noticed him staring yet. She was too busy with something in front of her to even look up.

Percy didn't mind, though. He was happy just looking from afar, for right now. Maybe he would build up the courage to talk to her later. But the way the sunlight from the window beside her reflected off her hair, making it look even blonder than it already was, or how she subconsciously stuck out her tongue when she focused extremely hard on whatever it was she was doing was absolutely captivating. She had on a pair of black-framed reading glasses that sat low on her face. She would push them back up whenever they fell.

Percy decided to stop blatantly staring, it looked suspicious that he was just standing while everyone else sat down. He moved a couple seats closer to where he could get a better view of her. He saw that she was drawing or writing in a notebook in front of her.

Percy pulled out his phone and looked at the time, _4:52 pm_. He maybe had another forty minutes on the train before he got to his stop. If he got off the train without even talking to her, he'd probably regret it for a long time. Percy did like to avoid lifelong mistakes

Without thinking, his feet lifted him up and suddenly he was hovering beside her seat. She still hadn't noticed him yet, instead continuing to jot stuff down in her book. Now that he was closer he could see she was drawing a skyscraper, or something.

Before Percy lost his nerves, he took a seat across from her. Her head jolted up in surprise and that's when Percy saw the best thing about her.

Her _eyes_.

Simply put, they were striking. They seemed to literally pierce his soul. Percy would've loved to have been exaggerating, too. They were probably the lightest, most unique shade of grey he's ever seen. The direct sunlight seemed to amplify them even more.

They were so striking that Percy hadn't even noticed her speak until she physically waved her hand in front of his face.

"Uh, Hello there?" She waved her hand again. "Can I help you?"

"Um, yes?" Percy said, not really thinking this through. "I, uh, I don't know. I saw you from over there," he vaguely pointed behind him, "and now I'm here."

"Alright then," She said.

They sat in silence, staring at each other. Percy tried for a smile but it came out like more of a grimace.

"Oh, right." He remembered. "I'm Percy." He extended an arm across the table for her to shake.

She looked at it for a couple of seconds then smirked. "Alright, I'll bite. I'm Annabeth."

"Wow, that's a really unique name." Percy absent-mindedly commented.

"Well, Percy isn't the most popular of names either."

"Yeah," He said. "I guess you're right."

She picked up her pencil again and brought it down to the page, doing long strokes up the side of the skyscraper.

"What are you drawing?" Percy said during the middle of one of the long strokes.

The sound broke her concentration and the tail end of the stroke ended up skewed.

"Whoops. My bad." Percy winced. "It looks really nice."

Annabeth flipped her pencil around and started erasing the messed up part. "It's the building across from where I work. I don't actually know the name of it but I thought I'd draw it."

"Are you an artist?"

"I'm an architect." She corrected. "Well, actually I'm an intern, but once the internship is over, I'll be an architect."

"That's super cool." Percy stated. "You're really good at drawing."

She looked up at him and Percy was lost in her eyes again.

"Thank you." She said, putting the book away. "So, what are you really doing?"

"Hmm? What do you mean?" Percy asked.

"There's so many other open seats. Why'd you choose the one right across from me?"

"You're really pretty." Percy said, immediately wincing. He really had to stop doing the first thing his brain told him to do. It's getting him in extremely awkward situations.

"Sorry about that." He continued. "Usually I think more before I speak. But, um, yeah. I saw you, and you're really pretty. So I thought it would, uh, suck if I didn't at least talk to you."

"Hmph." Annabeth laughed to herself. "Well, you aren't too bad yourself."

"Um, thanks?" Percy said, seriously wondering what was going on.

"So, what's making you take the train this lovely afternoon?" Annabeth asked.

"I was visiting my cousins. They live out of town and I haven't seen them in a while."

"Aw, that's sweet." She mocked.

"Thanks, I really missed them- Wait. Are you making fun of me?"

"No." Annabeth said, shaking her head, smiling, "Of course not."

"Well, what about you? Why are you on the train?"

"Apparently it's so decently attractive guys can hit on me." Annabeth muttered.

"Wait, no." Percy stuttered, trying not to blush. "I'm- it's not like...Hey! _Decently_ attractive? I'll have you know I am _extremely_ attractive."

"Yeah, I bet you're humble, too."

"What can I say? I'm one of the most humble guys I know." Percy joked.

Annabeth laughed and Percy felt something warm inside. He liked making her laugh.

Annabeth checked the clock on her phone. "Looks like I'm stuck with you until my stop, which is in about thirty minutes. At least you're funny."

Percy smiled. Her stop was in thirty minutes? What a coincidence. She was in for a surprise.

* * *

 **Okay so, I know I already did a train/subway situation but this one was a little more personal for me and I decided to make this. (shoutout to that girl on the train that i saw but never had the courage to talk to lol). Also I'm pretty sure the ending is terrible but like that's up for you people to decide. And why did I write this instead of like studying for exams that are literally this week. Also I gave Annabeth glasses in this because for some reason I'm picturing her with reading glasses. Anyway, all mistakes are mine and I hope you all enjoyed!**


	10. Just Go With the Flow

**The end of an era? Please read the AN at the end of this, I'd really apprecitate it.**

 **Words w/out AN: 2366**

 **Pairing(s): Percabeth, Jasper**

 **I am not Rick, so I own nothing.**

Just Go With the Flow

* * *

Percy was sitting on the couch, watching some T.V, trying to relax. The newest episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians was on, don't tell anyone he watched it though, it's his guilty pleasure. As far as Friday's go, this one was spent in the Grace household. His best friend, Jason Grace was sprinting around his house, each time he ran by, he had something new on. First it was a light green dress shirt and black dress pants. Jason walked over to where Percy was sitting and asked him what he thought.

Percy glanced over at his best friend since the first grade. His close-cropped blond hair was neat and his striking sky-blue eyes were filled with worry, he seemed very nervous, glancing down at his clothes every few seconds. A scar on his upper lip flashed every time it caught the light.

"Too formal." Percy replied, short and simple.

Jason stumbled back to his room, ripping off his shirt to change into something else. A few minutes later he came back out with a sweater vest and shorts.

"Since when did you own a sweater vest?" Percy asked, genuinely curious.

"Not sure, I think it was a birthday present." Jason replied, "What about this though?"

"I don't understand why you're stressing about this. It's not like it's a date or anything. You're just going out with me and like three other people, and you happen to have the biggest crush on one of those people." Percy said, not wanting to comment on how ridiculous Jason looks.

"And you look ridiculous, by the way." Oh well, he changed his mind.

"It may not be a date, but I'm still trying to make a good impression," Jason whined, "I like to think of it as a not-date-but-could-lead-to-a-date-date-if-she-has-fun-on-the-not-date."

"Dude, you seriously need to calm down, I can practically feel your stress jumping off you. Just wear your favourite purple shirt and some jeans and bring a sweater in case it gets cold like I'm doing." Percy casually said.

"Yeah, yeah...I'll be right back." Jason practically screamed as he was sprinting down the hall to change once more.

He came back out, still acting nervous, randomly fidgeting but at least he didn't look bad anymore.

"How come you aren't nervous? My sister never told us who the other person was, what if she's the love of your life or something. "Jason asked.

"Bro, I try not to sweat the small stuff. It's better to be relaxed and watch some Keeping up with the Kardashians than stress over what I'm gonna wear. Besides I look amazing in everything. So if the love of my life shows up, she'll think I'm amazing or something." Percy said smirking.

"She'll definitely think something," Jason said, hiding some laughs "Thalia said to be at the mall in 20 minutes, we should leave soon."

Percy got up and did a once-over in the mirror, his raven black hair was messy and unruly. There wasn't anything he could do though, it's as if it had a mind of it's own. He made eye contact with himself, his piercing sea-green eyes examining himself. He figured he looked fine in his blue v-neck and jeans, his sweater tossed over his shoulder. He started walking towards the car where Jason was waiting, mindlessly checking to see if he had everything. Keys….check, wallet….check, phone….check. Percy seemed to have everything so he made his way outside to Jason's car where Jason was waiting.

"You got everything?" Jason asked, he was nervously pacing by the car door.

"Yeah I'm good, and seriously calm down or something, it's starting to get annoying. Just go with the flow." Percy said trying to relax Jason.

"Yeah, go with the flow, just let the breeze carry me away, let the current whisk me where ever. Just let the-"

"You're rambling again" Percy deadpanned.

"Yep, sorry" Jason said, popping the 'P'. He went back to focusing on the road, as he pulled the car out of his driveway and started towards the mall.

* * *

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O

* * *

"It's actually a really funny story," Thalia was saying, holding back a smile "He was hungry and he picked up the stapler and tried to eat it."

Everyone there burst out laughing, except for Jason. He had a blush creeping up his neck. His sister Thalia laughed even more when she saw Jason. You wouldn't think Jason and her were related. She had short, black, choppy hair. The only similarities were their eyes. They both had striking sky-blue eyes. Thalia was wearing black, ripped jeans and a 'Death to Barbie' T-shirt.

"Well that's one way to get a scar," Piper said, her eyes danced with mischief "I thought it would've been something cool, like he was attacked by someone with a knife."

"If someone with a knife wanted to attack Jason I guarantee you he would've ran away." Percy cut in, still laughing.

"What! I would not have run away. I'm captain of the football team, I would've tackled him to the ground before he could do anything." Jason said, waving his arms in protest.

"Yeah, Jason Grace, eating staplers by day and tackling people at night." Thalia said sarcasm dripping from her words but in a playful tone.

Another round of laughter came from everyone. Percy looked around at the people sitting at the table. There was Thalia, Jason, Piper and himself. With an open seat beside Percy for Thalia's other friend that they were waiting for. Percy never got a good look at the person sitting across from him, Piper McLean. This is the first time Percy's seen her and she seems like a cool person. With a chill, laid-back attitude. Percy thinks she's really pretty but in an all natural way. She has choppy, brown hair that looks like she cut it herself with a feather braided into it. It's almost like she tries to downplay her beauty and not make a big deal of it. The most interesting thing Percy saw at first was her eyes. They couldn't stay one colour and always shifted. From brown to blue to green. It was like kaleidoscope of colours.

The four were sitting at the table, in the pizza shop of their local mall, laughing and joking around with each other for a few more minutes when Percy heard the door open up behind him. He saw Thalia glance back and then smile. Jason and Piper also looked behind him. He spun around and was face to face with blonde curls, and a lot of them. Her blonde, princess curls were cut shoulder length. They hung freely on her head and the curls definitely looked natural. The mystery girl looked around the pizza shop until her eyes landed on their group. When she made eye contact with Percy his stomach did flips, nope, a full gymnastic routine. It's as if his digestive system was training for the Olympics. She had intense grey eyes that scanned you up and down, as if she were looking for your every weakness. Her tanned skin was definitely natural, nothing like all of the spray that you'd see on Keeping Up With the Kardashians. She started walking towards them and Jason nudged him in the back.

"What if she's the love of your life?" Jason said smirking, quietly enough so no one else could hear. Memories of their earlier conversation resurfaced. "And by the way, close your mouth, you'll catch flies."

That's when Percy realized three things:

He was staring, and he's pretty sure everyone else noticed him.

His mouth was indeed open, that surprised him. He didn't realize it was open so he quickly clamped it shut.

And finally, he realized that this Mystery Girl was beautiful, and she was getting closer and closer.

"Hey guys," Mystery Girl said, her voice was melodic and appealing, "Sorry I'm late, I was babysitting my brothers."

"Yeah, no problem," Thalia replied, "We just got here, right guys?"

A flurry of 'yeah's' and 'uh huh's' coursed throughout them. Percy made a sound that was more like 'uhhhhhhh' the entire time. Again he had to clamp his mouth shut just to stop.

"Guys, this is Annabeth Chase." Thalia said.

Annabeth Chase. Now he knew her name. He hadn't said it out loud but he liked the way it rolled off the tongue. Her very presence made his heart flutter. Percy suddenly became very nervous and conscious of every mistake he's making. How his left shoe isn't tied or how no matter how much he tried he couldn't keep his mouth closed. He'd have to duck tape it shut later… No doubt his fly is open and he's definitely still staring. It would sound cliché if Percy said it out loud. His heart fluttering, the way he felt a bit light-headed, but he actually felt that way.

"Hi Annabeth, it's nice to meet you." Jason said, breaking Percy out of his stupor.

"Hey Annie." Piper said with a smirk.

Suddenly there was a murderous look in Annabeth's eye, she turned to glare at Piper.

"Do NOT. Call. Me. Annie." Annabeth said, slow and deadly.

Note-to-self, Percy thought, don't call her Annie.

Percy tried to introduce himself, "Uh, hi-hello, I-I'm Per-uh, Percy." He coughed, trying to clear his throat and his embarrassment.

Percy could feel his other friends snickering behind him. He could feel the blush that was on Jason just a few minutes prior, slowly crawl up his neck. He quickly turned around to give them his special, mega, deluxe death glare, version 2.0. It was kind of hard to do when he was as red as a tomato, but he managed. Percy turned back to Annabeth, who was also slightly blushing.

"So…" She said, "Are you guys ready to order?"

"Yeah, sure" Thalia replied trying to wave down a waitress, "What do you guys want? I'm thinking of getting a large pepperoni pizza and splitting it between us all."

Percy tried to stammer out a 'yeah, sounds good' but it came out as a series of random noises ended with a large amount of coughing.

"Percy, Come on man. Try not to be so nervous, just go with the flow." Jason said.

Each word coming out of Jason's mouth was drizzled in sarcasm. It got to the point where it was just pure mockery, but Percy could see in Jason's eyes it was all for fun. Percy snuck in a quick glare before he turned and saw Annabeth take a seat beside him. Percy was at a loss for words, which was a big step up since the only noise he could make was 'uh' and going into a series of coughing fits.

"You're cute when you're flustered, which is good since you look good in red." whispered Annabeth, directly into Percy's ear so no one else could hear.

He looked up, surprised to see her whispering into his ear, then his head shot down once he realized he was staring, yet again. Then Percy turned a very dark red, not unlike the tomato sauce that was sitting on the pizza that the waitress had recently placed onto their table. He started screaming. On the inside of course, once he realized Annabeth was either flirting with him or purposely trying to stain his face red from blushing too hard, probably a mix of the two, he tried to calm down and speak in full sentences. Like he was taught to do during elementary school. He looked over to her and saw the playful smirk she had, even though she was slightly, making fun of him he couldn't help but smile a goofy, lopsided grin at her.

"I feel like you're purposely trying to make my face go beet red." Percy whispered back, he eyed the other people across the table.

Thalia, Jason and Piper were engrossed in their own conversation, something about the amazing pizza here.

"At first I wasn't, but now I'm trying to see which shades of red you can reach. So far you've gone from tomato face to beet red." Annabeth playfully said.

"Ha, ha, very funny." Percy shot back, "I was only blushing because I was nervous, I thought I was uh, gonna spill my drink."

Not one of his best lies, then again definitely not one of his worst.

"Right," Annabeth said, her voice was doubtful, "You were nervous that you were gonna spill your drink? Well Percy, it doesn't look like you have a drink anywhere on the table."

She looked around the table, then gave Percy a knowing smile. Cue tomato Percy, he sputtered out a weak excuse about already finishing the drink, but Annabeth knew he was lying.

"What was it Jason said?" Annabeth mused, "Ah right, 'try not to be so nervous, just go with the flow.'"

At this point Percy was a bright shade of crimson, but when he heard those words he furrowed his eyebrows.

"Wait a minute, no, no, no, no, no. I said that to Jason earlier because he was nervous about Piper being here." Percy all but screamed, trying to defend his honour.

Now it was Jason's turn to blush. Their table was echoing with laughter while almost half of them were still some shade of red. Jason shrunk back into his chair. Slowly turning back to his usual tanned self. After a bit the group was regularly talking and laughing, making jokes and having an all around good time. Percy managed to get his face under control and Jason even managed to convince Piper to go on an actual date-date with him, not just a not-so-date-date.

They started walking towards the connected movie theater in the mall. They all agreed on watching whatever generic action movie there is. Percy didn't complain. Just go with the flow. Later on, when Annabeth slipped her hand into his during the movie, he just went with the flow. Once the movie finished, and they were all waiting outside, Percy decided to change things up a bit, he went over to Annabeth and kissed her. And she just went with the flow.

* * *

 **Alright so. First things first, yes, I've already posted this before. It's actually the very first fic I wrote and I'd like to think I've improved a lot since then (i hope i've improved a lot since then, anyway lol) I've done some careful thinking about the future of this account (no, I'm not going anywhere) and as much as I hate to get rid of history I can't stand the idea of having an unfinished series that I know will never get finished. Anyway what I'm trying to say is I'm deleting my very first story _The Meetings at the Mall_ for many reasons. (I'm never gonna finish it, it's a lot "worse" than what I write now, blah blah blah). I am very nostalgic though so I thought it would be appropriate to upload the very first chapter of that story as the final chapter of this one.**

 **Which means yes, _The Ways They Met: Percabeth_ , is coming to an end. (Actually, it's already at an end, you just need to finish reading this AN). As much fun as it was to write this series, I'm looking forward to the new things coming for you guys (i'm looking at you _unnamed soulmates au_ ) I'm mainly ending this because writing different ways that Percabeth met was getting kind of repetitive. It made the overall writing experience boring to have the same kind of writing over and over again (they meet, they banter, they get together, rinse wash and repeat)**

 **And maybe some of you think I'm getting too dramatic with this whole _it was fun while it lasted_ spiel and maybe I am getting too dramatic lol. But this series is a very big deal to me. If I had to choose one "work" to represent my entire account, I'd choose this one. This series, I think, really shows the progression of my writing and the quality of it.**

 **Like all great works, this wasn't done alone (not saying this is a great piece of work lol, I'm not _that_ egotistical). This is the part where I thank everyone that has contributed to this fic, even if they don't know it. (alphabetical order)**

 _ **goldenlanterns**_ **-** **very cool person, 7/7. always a fun person to talk to, about everything, not just ffn. They read through some of my earlier works and was very motivational when I needed it most. Please check em out (even though they've been inactive for _literal months._ don't worry though, they'll be back eventually lol)**

 _ **leighismyname -**_ **also a very cool person, 7/7. if it wasn't for their _Normals, Meet Abnormals_ series, _The Ways They Met: Percabeth_ would literally never exist.** **just a super cool person and she deserves all the love in the world (so show it to her pls and thank you)**

 ** _WildYoungAndFree_ \- probably the very first person that I started talking to on this site. one of my first friends. Thank you very much for making my first memories some of the better ones**

 **And finally, (probably the most saturated part but it's still very true) thank you, the readers for actually enjoying my stuff. like what? that's crazy? you like what I do in whatever free time I have enough to favourite and follow it? to review it? to just read it? that's crazy cool. Thank You, and as always, I hope you all enjoyed.**

 **p.s I've had this chapter + AN prewritten for a while now, just waiting for the right time to upload it (which definitely isn't now, since I should be studying for exams lol) so if I missed someone, I'm sorry :(**


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